Pradeep (Owner) 29 October 2013

Help me get my justice

Hello learned council members,

I am Pradeep. I am in trouble and have been harassed by my advocate. Till now, I was posting in this forum to fight against the corrupt advocate in the BAR council, but now ever after producing all the evidence, the state bar council has dismissed my complaint. I had also filed a complaint in the consumer forum. The consumer forum is asking for the order sheet of the BAR council. I need your genuine help to get justice. I have already gone through lot of mental agony and harassment. Please go through my story below and provide advice to proceed further.

I had met with an accident in Dec 2006 and during my hospitalization, an advocate approached me and introduced himself to be an expert in motor vehicle accident case specialist. He told me that he would not take any fees to fight the case in the court but at the end, would take 15 % of the award amount as his professional fee.

The matter took 5 years in the lower court and Rs 10 lakhs was awarded as compensation. The insurance went doe an appeal before the high court. The high court released an interim order of Rs 6 lakhs.

Out of 6 lakhs, 1 Lakh was in the form of FD and remaining 5 lakhs in the form of cheque.

On the day before going to receive the cheque from the court, the advocate called me to his office and asked for some signatures on several papers. some 20 papers. Accidentally, my mistake I had signed on an application form and a voucher. When asked for the reason, the advocate said that after presenting the voucher to the court, the court will release the cheque in the afternoon.

After receiving the cheque the advocate asked me to hand over the cheque to him as security and justified that after I pay him his professional fee, he would handover the cheque to me. The next day when I went to him with the cheque for his professional fee, he refused to give the judicial cheque to me. He instead gave me Rs 1 lakh and said that he would not take any more fee from me in the high court and would get the remaining 4 lakhs form the high court within two months.

Two months, went by, three, four, five and finally i decided to confront this corrupt advocate. I sent him a legal letter asking him to handover the remaining money and give NOC. He called me to his office and after 2 hours of discussion finally agreed to return me my money after deducting his fees. Again he started his dirty tricks for the next two weeks.

I finally with the inputs from this website, filed a complaint in the BAR council and in consumer forum.

In BAR council, from the beginning they were partial to the advocate. The advocate had engaged a council to fight his case both in consumer forum as well as BAR council. The council has not filed an affidavit, has not given any evidence, and made lot of contradictory statements in his own objection, but yet the BAR council has given him a clean chit and have dismissed my case.

Now, the council is trying to leverage the order sheet from the BAR council to get a clean chit in consumer forum as well.

Now coming to the point of my signatures. The advocate has used my signatures to open a bank account used my signatures on the voucher to encash the judicial cheque from the bank. I have the details of the bank forms which contains my signatures but all other sections are filled by the advocate and his associates.

What should I do next. Should I go to the police? Please help me out. I will share my contact details to people who want to help me. Please reply back or send an email to pradeep.kumar44@gmail.com. I am trashed and demolished by these corrupt people. I have no hope but neither willing to give up. If nothing works I have no option but to leave it up to the almighty to take care.

Regards,

Pradeep

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3 Replies

Dr. MPS RAMANI Ph.D.[Tech.] (Scientist/Engineer) 01 November 2013

This is not a civil dispute, nor something for the bar council. This is a plain case under IPC Section 420. You can go to the police. Though they should act, the police will not act. Further since you have delayed, they will give it as an excuse.You file a criminal suit in the magistrate's court.

In whose name was the judicial cheque drawn? Was it not in your name? Was it not crossed? Even a crossed cheque can be claimed by a third party if it is endorsed by the original payee. But banks normally would not pay to a third party nor credit it to a third party's account. I strongly suspect that someone in the bank also would have been hand-in-glove with the lawyer.

If the lawyer had come to you on his own he may have similarly cheated other gullible parties also and a racket may be working.

I cannot help you because I am not a lawyer. But I can give intelligent advice. Some lawyer may be responding to this post. You can consult him.

In which place or city are you?

Pradeep (Owner) 01 November 2013

Hi sir. could you please reply with your phone number.

Dr. MPS RAMANI Ph.D.[Tech.] (Scientist/Engineer) 02 November 2013

1. Was the initial agreement between you and the lawyer in writing or only oral?

2. Did not the case go to the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal?

3. The order for Rs.6 lakhs was an interim order only. In other words the final judgment is yet to come. There may be more hearings. Have you withdrawn the vakalatnama of the lawyer? Otherwise he may do even more damage.

4. Did you note (a) on which Bank the cheque was drawn and (b) who was the drawer of the cheque, the insurance company or the Government? Was the cheque crossed, a bearer cheque or an order cheque? Did you sign on the front or back of the cheque?

5. Your lawyer said that he will get for you the remaining 4 lakhs from the court. The court had already given a cheque for 5 lakhs. Where is the question of again the court issuing another cheque for 4 lakhs?

6. The lawyer engaged another lawyer to fight his case before the Bar Council and also before the consumer forum. Did you not engage any lawyer?

7. The bar council dismissed your case. Did they not give you a copy of the judgment? If not, you can apply to the secretariat of the Bar Council for a certified copy of the judgment and other documents, if any.

8. The lawyer opened an account in your name, deposited the cheque amount in the account and withdrew it using the voucher signed by you. Is the bank same as the one where the lawyer has an account? Which bank it was? Was it a private sector bank or a public sector bank? Was there the account opening form among the 20 papers signed by you? What was the voucher? One can withdraw money from a bank either using a withdrawal form or a cheque both issued by the same bank. Was the voucher one of these? In order to open an account one’s photograph and KYC (Know Your Customer) should also have been given. Were they given? A person known to the Bank (generally they mean an existing account holder) should have introduced you to the Bank. Who was that person?

Your lawyer is a criminal guilty not only under IPC, but also under the Negotiable Instruments Act? Most probably the Bank and the Bar Council also are party to the crime.

You should approach the Bank and get reply to all the above questions in writing. You tell them that you will not only complain to their superiors but also to the Ombudsman.

In the Consumer Court you leave out the Bar Council. You make the lawyer and the Bank only as opposite parties. Make this purely a case of bank fraud committed by the Bank and the lawyer together.

You continue to pursue your accident case in the court.

I did not give you my phone number because it is not possible to discuss all these on telephone. Also please tell me in which place or city are you.