New Delhi, Jan 20 (TIWN) Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde on Wednesday expressed his dissatisfaction at the absence of senior advocate Dushyant Dave, representing eight farmer unions protesting against the farm laws, from the hearing in connection with the laws last week.

Citing the hearing where Dave was not present, the Chief Justice said: "We remember saying that we are not passing any orders and keeping it (the matter) for tomorrow."  Dave submitted before the bench also comprising Justices A.S. Bopanna and V. Ramasubramanian that he had sought time to seek instructions from his clients.  At this, the Chief Justice noted that Dave was not there the next day.

"You always appear, you were not expected not to appear," he said.  "This is not proper... if you were interested in the matter, then you should have appeared. Everybody appears when we dictate orders," he added.  Dave replied that there was a genuine misunderstanding. The Chief Justice said: "We normally know you were happy to appear, but do not know why you didn't appear." After this, he closed the topic.  The observation was made by Chief Justice during hearing on an application by Rajasthan-based farmer union, Kisan Mahapanchayat, seeking modification of its order January 12, which named the four expert members on the committee to resolve the deadlock between farmer unions and Centre over the farm laws.