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Some Specimens of the Nobel and Learned Profession – Part VI

Title: Some Specimens of the Nobel and Learned Profession – Part VI

Some Specimens of the Nobel and Learned Profession - VI

(In the context of false case booked under Section 498A of IPC)

B.N.GURURAJ, Advocate

In this narration,

CL stands for Civil Lawyer of the Accused person.

CRL stands for Criminal side Lawyer of the Accused person.

OL stands for opposite side lawyer.

Help comes from unexpected quarter

After leaving the mediation centre and its Deputy Director, we were left wondering how to file the petition under Section 482 of Cr.P.C and through whom to file. CL was to busy a lawyer to appear in court for his client. When he was acting as prima donna even for sparse appearances in the family court, how to expect him to file the petition within a day and bring up matter before the High Court? As far as CRL was concerned, for his own personal reasons, he wanted the accused persons to pursue the remedy through the police station by paying them for getting charged of offences. The CRL was bent upon discouraging the accused husband from going anywhere near the High Court. I was considering approaching some of my other advocate friends who had done work both on civil and criminal side, especially in the High Court.

Sometime late in the evening, the CRL called the accused husband and told him that the OL was willing to file a petition under Section 482 on behalf of his client, but expected to be paid by the accused husband! I thought that besides being a practice of questionable professional ethics, of taking fee from accused, when he had been representing the complainant, I also wondered, how the complainant herself could approach the High Court for quashing of her own complaint? With some misgiving but grudgingly, I had to admit that the speed with which the OL was working was impressive, unlike our two lawyers. I told the accused husband to take his help, discuss fee with him, and ensure that it was actually filed in the High Court. That he should not lead be lead up the garden path. It is possible for one to do a lot of paper work to impress the client, but not actually file it. I described the filing procedure in the High Court to the accused husband and told him to ensure that it was filed in that manner and also to obtain a copy of petition and its number allotted by the High Court registry. I also told him about the misgiving about filing the petition in the complainant’s name and told him to mention it to the OL.

The OL asked the accused husband to come to his office the next morning by 9.30 am. I had not accompanied him to the OL’s office. But, in the course of a single day, the OL sent his juniors to obtain certified copies of documents both in sessions court and in the magistrate courts. Usually, even after tipping the chain of persons involved in issuing certified copy, it would take an entire day. But, this person had managed to get the copies in couple of hours from not one, but two courts. He had drafted the petition in the name of complainant. At that stage, the senior lawyer in their firm noticed this and told the OL that complainant herself could not file the petition. It could filed only by the accused persons. Now, the difficulty was that the OL himself could not appear for the accused alo. That would be a clear case of professional misconduct. Therefore, besides modifying the draft petition showing the cause title as filed by the accused persons, he also found another lawyer to go on record by filing vakalathnama. These things done, he managed to file the petition in the High Court registry by 3.30 pm, with memo requesting for urgent posting.

His people worked like beaver the next day to ensure that the petition crossed all the hurdles of office objections and reached the Board Branch, the department responsible for preparing the cause list for all the court halls.

Late in the evening, when I checked the High Court website for cause list for the next day, I found that this petition had been listed. It was listed way down. The matter, if at all were to reach, would come up only by 3.30 or 4.00 pm. I gave this piece of positive news the accused.

Criminal proceeding quashed by the High Court

Next day, the OL ensured that the complainant was present in the court through out the day. Similarly, accused persons, all the three were present in the court. This particular court hall was especially busy, with over one hundred matters listed each day. There were two lists for that day. The matter was not called even after 4.00 pm. The accused were feeling rather let down, and expected that it would have to be pursued the next day. However, as the luck would have it, at 4.15, the matter was called. When the learned judge saw that the matter had been settled before the mediation centre and the complainant had committed to withdraw the complaint, he formally told the High Court government pleader to take notice. After seeing that all the parties were present before him, and none wanted the proceedings to continue, the learned Judge recorded all these facts and quashed the complaint pending before the magistrate. Whole thing was over in less than ten minutes, including the dictation of order.

The accused walked out of the court and gave me the good news. It was like lifting a ton load off my chest. For the last one month, this matter had been my major pre-occupation and worry. This was on Thursday.

CRL throws wrench in the works

In the evening, while speaking to the accused husband, I told him to arrange for his travel, as the High Court had quashed the matter. He thought that he might not get air ticket during week ends and might have to travel on next Monday. However, he would have liked to leave on Saturday itself, so that on Monday, he could report to duty. From Monday onwards, his absence would have been without pay.

Then he contacted CRL to know what is the next step to be taken. Of course, it was known to us, but had to be done through him. First, CRL told him to obtain two certified copies, one for submission to the court, the other for submission to the police station. Next he told him to stay in India, until certified copies were received and application moved before the magistrate for producing the order of the High Court before the magistrate’s court. This greatly alarmed the accused husband. With unbelievable hardship, he had managed to get the civil and criminal cases concluded in time to go back to his job. Here, his own lawyer was trying to hold him down and deprive him of the job. When the accused husband explained that this was not possible, as he had to report to duty on Monday, the CRL started abusing him over phone without even pausing to listen to what the client was saying! Later on learnt that this abusive telecon went on for an unbelievable 25 minutes!

Late in the night, the accused husband called me and told me of the problem being caused by the CRL’s obstructive attitude. I told him to wait for ten minutes. I called another criminal side lawyer, whom I had known and discussed the problem with him. He categorically told me that for producing the certified copy of the court’s order before the magistrate, available accused persons could appear before the court and for the absent accused, an exemption petition could be filed under Section 317(1) of the Cr.PC. He told me to send the accused husband away as nothing else could go wrong, after the High Court had quashed the criminal proceeding, especially when based on the mediation agreement.

Husband, now free, leaves India

I called the accused husband within next ten minutes and told him to peacefully leave the country and not to bother about the temper tantrums of the CRL. They were so much vexed by the CRL’s tantrums and his contact in police station that they almost expected police to come and stop the departure of the accused husband on the Saturday morning! Of course, nothing so dramatic happened. He left the country by flight which left Bangalore at 1145 hours.

I sincerely hope that he does not return to India, its petty politics, terrorism, social chaos, vindictive legal system, casteism, and pollution for next few years!

PS: As promised the advocate who appeared in the High Court managed to obtain the certified copy by fourth day after the day of judgment. Next day, it was produced for the record of police station. Mercifully, the police station acknowledged the receipt of the order. The very same week end, it was also filed before the magistrate’s court, through another criminal side lawyer, a vastly superior specimen of this learned profession. The court was pleased to close the file based on the order of the High Court which had quashed the crime case. The harrowing experience ended precisely after thirty nine days.