Woman On The Run After Being Exposed For Practicing Law Without LLB Degree

BACKGROUND OF THE CASE

• Cessy Xavier is a 27 year old woman from the district of Alappuzha.
• Earlier this month, the Alappuzha Bar Association received an anonymous letter, stating that Xavier did not possess the required qualification for practicing law.
• It was further heard that she had fabricated an elaborate story of starting her LLB studies from Thiruvananthapuram and completing the same from Bangalore.

STEPS TAKEN BY THE BAR

• The Bar Association held further enquiries and found that the roll number submitted by her in the Bar, belonged to another person and Xavier never even registered with the Kerala Bar Council.
• The Bar Association immediately terminated her membership and issued a notice against her, to which Xavier has not yet responded.
• Eventually, they filed a complaint in this regard with the Alappuzha North Police.
• She was successful in hiding her deception for two years and in the mean time, she got appointed as the Librarian by winning a Bar Association election.

THE POLICE COMPLAINT

• In the complaint filed with the police, the Bar Association claimed that she had also stolen some rare books and other important documents from the library.
• A police case was registered against her under Sections 417 (punishment for cheating), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), and 419 (punishment for cheating by personation) of the Indian Penal Code.

FLEEING FROM THE COURT

• Xavier appeared before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court-I in Alappuzha, on Thursday to surrender.
• There, she got to know that some of the charges registered against her were of non-bailable offences.
• Therefore, she fled from the Court premises before the police arrived.
• The police have still not found her and tracing her whereabouts.

SIMILAR CASES

• The Bar Council of Delhi, in November 2019, had witnessed a similar case.
• In that case, the law degrees acquired by several lawyers on its rolls appeared to be fake.

What should be done in these cases in your view?