Madras High Court: K Murali Shankar, J. quashed the proceedings initiated against an advocate who happens to be the counsel of the accused in a case sub-judice in a Court of law. The Court reprimanded the practice of implicating advocates as accused, as in the given case the advocate accompanied the Advocate Commissioner to the disputed suit property which forms the subject matter of a sub-judice case and implicated for offences such as trespass, theft and criminal intimidation.
The petitioner is a practicing Advocate in the Courts at Dindigul for the past 29 years and he is the Counsel on record for the accused Balaguru and Leelavathy in title dispute sub-judice in a Court of law. The case of the prosecution is that when the defacto complainant and his family members went to Trichendur, all the five accused broke open the door of the defacto complainant’s house, trespassed into the house and had stolen Rs.1, 00,000/- cash, one laptop and some documents, that when the defacto complainant and his wife returned to their home from Trichendur, they were prevented from entering into their house and that the accused Leelavathi and Balaguru had caused criminal intimidation.
F.I.R was registered for the offences under Sections 147, 454, 380, 341 and 506(i) Penal Code, 1860 (‘IPC'), against 5 persons including the petitioner, charge sheet was filed and non-bailable warrant (‘NBW') was issued against the petitioner after showing him to be an absconding accused. Thus, an instant petition was filed by the petitioner under Section 482 Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) for quashing the proceedings.
Based on alteration report filed by Sub Inspector before the Court, the Court observed that the alleged complaint of stealing cash, laptop and other documents was not true, that there was no stealing of such articles and that the defacto complainant with an evil intention to implicate the accused with theft case has raised false allegations.
The Court observed that as per the Advocate Commissioner’s interim report, the petitioner had visited the disputed property along with the Advocate Commissioner after 08.00 PM, on the occurrence day. It was noted that the nature of work of an Advocate is not only limited to the Courts, and they are expected to visit the property in dispute or the scene of occurrence to have first-hand information and direct such information about the property in dispute or the occurrence scene. Moreover, it is their bounden duty to accompany the Advocate Commissioner appointed in the cases for inspecting the disputed property and for other purposes.
The Court noted that a new trend has been emerging in implicating the Advocates as accused along with their clients with ulterior motive of achieving the intended result quickly or immediately. Thus, the Court held “permitting the prosecution to proceed against the petitioner is totally unwarranted and the same would amount to be an abuse of process of the law.”
[P Velumani v. The State, Crl O P (MD) No. 3653 of 2019, decided on 07-07-2022]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
Mr. M. Sheik Abdullah, Advocate, for the Petitioner;
Mr. K. Sanjai Gandhi, Government Advocate, for the Respondents(Crl. Side).
*Arunima Bose, Editorial Assistant has reported this brief.