Delhi High Court asks Bar Council of Delhi to take action against lawyer if found guilty of fabricating order

The Delhi High Court recently directed the Bar Council of Delhi (BCD) to take appropriate action against a lawyer who has been accused of creating a fake order of the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB). [Court On Its Own Motion v. Vicky Aggarwal and Ors].The direction was passed by a division bench of Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Shalinder Kaur while disposing of the suo motu contempt proceedings initiated by the High Court after a "manufactured" IPAB order was placed before it. “We hereby direct the Bar Council of Delhi to take appropriate action, as per law against the said Mr. Sanjay Aggarwal, Advocate, if, he is found guilty of manufacturing the order dated 02.03.2016 purported to be by IPAB," the Court's November 16 order said. .The IPAB order had been placed before the High Court by the defendants during the hearing of a trademark suit. A vigilance inquiry had found that the said order did not exist, leading a single judge to refer the matter to the Chief Justice for the initiation of contempt proceedings in the matter.The main defendant, against whom the contempt proceedings were initiated before the division bench, unconditionally apologized to the Court and also explained the circumstances under which he came in possession of the false document in question..The Court was told that the document was handed over to the defendant by one, advocate Sanjay Aggarwal in April 2016. Aggarwal was said to have been engaged to represent the defendants before the Trademark Registry and IPAB..After coming to know that the IPAB order was manufactured, the main defendant (the first respondent in the suo motu contempt proceedings) filed a complaint before the Bar Council of Delhi against Aggarwal. The matter is pending consideration there, the Court was informed..Having considered this explanation, the Court accepted the respondents' apology and discharged them from the contempt proceedings, while directing the Bar Council of Delhi to take action against the accused lawyer if he is found guilty.Senior Advocate N Hariharan appeared as Amicus Curiae to assist the Court, along with Advocates Sharian Mukherji, Rekha Punya Angara and Mueed Shah and Vineed Dhanda.Advocates Prashant Mehta, Raghav Marwah and Vidit Gupta represented the respondents..[Read Order]