New Delhi: At a time when it is the norm to seek legal opinion prior to taking a decision, the SC has come to the rescue of lawyers by ruling that they cannot be prosecuted for rendering wrong advice if there is no link between them and perpetrators of a fraud or offence.
But the court said the advocate’s opinion must be bona fide as all legal practitioners owe “an unremitting loyalty to the interests of a client and it is the lawyer’s responsibility to act in a manner that would best advance the client’s interest”.
An apex court bench gave this judgment while dismissing the CBI’s appeal against an Andhra Pradesh HC order quashing criminal proceedings against an advocate for rendering legal opinion on genuineness of title deeds for sanction of loans, which resulted in amulti-crore loan fraud involving a nationalized bank.
The court said, “Merely because his opinion may not be acceptable, he cannot be mulcted with criminal prosecution, particularly, in the absence of tangible evidence that he associated with other conspirators. At the most, he may be liable for gross negligence or professional misconduct if it is established by acceptable evidence but cannot be charged for the offence under Section 420 (cheating) and 109 (abetment) along with other conspirators without proper and acceptable link between them.”
The court drew a parallel between lawyers and doctors and said no one can guarantee success – either in litigation or in treatment.
“A lawyer does not tell his client that he shall win the case in all circumstances. Likewise, a physician would not assure the patient of full recovery in every case,” the bench said.
