- The Hon'ble Rajasthan High Court observed in T.C. Gupta v. Union of India (2019) that the petitioner, Shri T.C. Gupta, an Advocate registered under the Rajasthan's Bar Council, had filed Original Applications in the Tribunal and writ petitions in the HC and had personally signed the pleadings, etc. without having been authorized explicitly in this regard by the litigants. As a result, the Hon'ble Court imposed a fine of Rs. 1,00,000 on the petitioner-advocate. The Court further found that the petitioner, who had been enrolled as an Advocate after retiring from the Income Tax Department, could not be penalized for acting as a de facto (in practice) party in judicial proceedings.
- In this case, Justice Sandeep Mehta and Justice Vinod Kumar Bharwani ruled that the petitioner-advocate had filed a writ petition order to quash the Tribunal's judgment dismissing the Original Applications submitted by an association known as the Income-Tax Contingent Employee's Union while serving as a de facto party. Thereafter, the case was introduced to the Rajasthan Bar Council for further proceedings against the petitioner-advocate.
- Furthermore, the Tribunal noted discrepancies in the petitioner's paperwork, which he had personally reviewed. Therefore, the Court concluded that the Tribunal had rightly imposed Rs.1,00,000/- compensation on the petitioner for the evident misconduct. However, the respondent counsel raised preliminary objections regarding the maintainability of the present petition for lack of proper authorization and pleaded for the order to be quashed as it was unjust and groundless.
- Rule 7 of The Central Administrative Tribunal Rules of Practice, 1993, states that when an application or other proceeding is alleged to have been filed by an Association, the person who signed the application must produce the application for verification by the Registry, and an authentic copy of the Association's resolution authorizing such person. The Registrar, on the other hand, may at any time require the party to submit such further information as himself concerning due authorization. The case of Union & Anr. vs. A.N. Jha & Anr. (2019)had observed the applicability of Rule 7, which was cited in this case.
- A probe into this matter revealed that no formal judgment permitting the filing of the Original Applications was put on the Tribunal's record, and two similar documents filed on separate days with the same content consisted of a variation in signatures. When the Tribunal compared the documents, it discovered that the petitioner-advocate had overlaid the signatures with a xerox machine.
- While confirming the severe misconduct, the Hon'ble Court directed the petitioner to pay the compensation to the Rajasthan State Legal Services Authority within 45 days and send a copy of the receipt to the Tribunal. The Court further stated that if the petitioner does not comply, the issue would be forwarded to the District Collector of Jodhpur to retrieve the compensation.
- In response, the petitioner requested that the issued judgment be reversed since it was unjust. He stated that he submitted those Original Applications in good faith after being retained as counsel by the Union and its Member Shri Mahendra Singh to campaign for the cause of casual workers employed by the Income Tax Department, but the Tribunal rejected the same.
- Meanwhile, the Income Tax Department's representative, Advocate Sunil Bhandari, agreed with the Tribunal's decision because the petitioner-advocate was not authorized by the so-called Income Tax Contingent Employee's Union to file cases on its behalf and had himself signed and affirmed the pleadings before the Tribunal despite the fact that he was not a party.
- Therefore, the Hon'ble HC dismissed the writ petition as it lacked merit.
"Loved reading this piece by Sharmishta?
Join LAWyersClubIndia's network for daily News Updates, Judgment Summaries, Articles, Forum Threads, Online Law Courses, and MUCH MORE!!"
Join LAWyersClubIndia's network for daily News Updates, Judgment Summaries, Articles, Forum Threads, Online Law Courses, and MUCH MORE!!"
