Delhi HC initiates criminal proceedings against lawyer for l

The Delhi High Court on 21st october 2009 directed criminal proceedings against a lawyer for misleading it by saying that he could not appear before it in a case as he was not aware of the date of the hearing. The court imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on him for giving a false statement and asked the Bar Council Of India to consider cancellation of his licence. The Court came to the conclusion after it was revealed that the lawyer R K Panigrahi and his client were both aware of the date of hearing as he had got gate pass issued to his client on that particular date. "I consider that the conduct of the counsel is unbecoming of an advocate. It only seems that the advocate has lost sense of professional ethics. He misled the litigant and even forged his diary to show to the court that he had noted wrong date," Justice S N Dhingra said. "Registrar General of the High Court is directed to file a complaint against the advocate as well as against his client for filing a false affidavit in the court and making false averments and allegation deliberately in the court," the judge said. The false averments made by the counsel came to light when the opposite party in the case had filed an RTI application while seeking information whether gate pass was issued for the erring client. The High Court in the reply had disclosed that on the date of hearing the erring lawyer has signed for the gate pass of his client and he was present in the court. "It is obvious that the counsel, with the intention of playing fraud with the court, knowing that his client had appeared in the court and watched the proceedings and he himself had noted right date in his diary, made this false application," the court said after going through the RTI reply. The Court dismissed the plea of the counsel who had pleaded to recall ex-parte order which was passed in his absence