Allahabad High Court initiates suo motu contempt proceedings against lawyer who misled it by concealing material facts

The Allahabad High Court on Thursday initiated suo motu contempt of court proceedings against a lawyer for misleading the Court by concealing material facts in a bail application. [State Of UP v. Mohd Rizwan].Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh observed that the counsel deliberately styled the second bail application in a case as the first bail application, because of which the matter was listed before another bench."Sri Parmanand Gupta, Advocate, has, prima facie, conducted himself against the Bar Council Rules, professional ethics, contemptuous manner and he has played fraud with the Court and also interfered with the course of justice by misleading the Court as he concealed the material fact regarding rejection of the first bail application by this Bench," the order stated..The Court was hearing an application by the State seeking cancellation of bail granted to an accused represented by Advocate Parmanand Gupta on March 22, 2022. According to the State, he had played tricks to obtain the order by styling the second bail application as the first bail application..On November 2, 2022, the Court took note of the misleading facts in the bail application, issued a show-cause notice to Gupta and kept the bail order of March 22, 2022 in abeyance.It had found that Gupta had obtained several similar orders by concealing the material aspect that the first bail application in the case had been rejected by the Court..During the hearing on Thursday, the Court said that Gupta had, prima facie, conducted himself in a contemptuous manner and had played fraud with the Court.Therefore, it held that Gupta had prima facie committed contempt of court and initiated suo motu criminal contempt proceedings against him..Further, considering that the bail order was obtained on misrepresentation of facts, the Court allowed the State's application and cancelled the order dated March 22, 2022..Advocate Ashwani Kumar Singh appeared for the State while Advocate Manoj Kumar represented Gupta..[Read Order]