Allahabad HC orders IB to probe 4 Lucknow lawyers; flags lawyer-police property grabbing nexus

The Allahabad Court on Tuesday directed the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to hold a discreet inquiry into the antecedents and activities of 4 advocates who recently thrashed a litigant and harassed 3 other lawyers, including 2 women lawyers, at the Lucknow district court.

A Bench of Justices Rajan Roy and Manjive Shukla also restrained the accused lawyers Saurabh Kumar Verma, Harshit Pandey, Yash Pandey and Abhay Pratap Verma from entering the district court till further orders.

"The local office of the Intelligence Bureau of the Central Government at Lucknow which as informed by Shri S.B. Pandey, learned D.S.G.I. is headed by an officer of the rank of Joint Director shall get a discreet inquiry conducted with regard to the antecedents and activities of the aforesaid advocates and the result thereof shall be presented in the form of a report to this Court in a sealed cover, if possible, by the next date of listing," the Court directed.

The Court also directed these advocates to submit copies of their income tax returns of the past 10 years and details of properties held by them and their family members. It further ordered them to give details of all civil cases in which they are either parties or are appearing as advocates.

The information was sought after the Court took note of the allegations that certain advocates in Lucknow were earning huge sums of money through illegal means.

"From the facts and material on record before us prima facie a case of gross professional misconduct, abuse of process of law, gross interference with due course of judicial proceedings, interference and obstruction in the administration of justice has occurred for which the aforesaid Advocates mentioned in this order appear to be liable," the Court said.

The Court also took note of the allegations that there is a group of lawyers who act like goons and use their status as advocates in the district court premises to grab property. It noted that there appeared to be a nexus between the lawyers, the police and other powerful persons.

"We have already observed in our earlier orders passed in these bunch of petitions about a possible nexus between the lawyers, police and other powerful persons. How to break this nexus and how to restore sanctity and faith in judicial proceedings is the million dollar question and a humongous task before us," the Bench said as it called upon the police and Bar associations to stand up against such malpractices.

The Court passed these directions after Advocates Abhipsa Mohanty, Komal Agarwal and Ashutosh Srivastava moved the Court alleging that Verma along with his associates recently prevented them from appearing before a civil judge in a case. They were representing one Mohd Shakir in the case

The controversy is connected to a civil suit seeking declaration of title and injunction in respect of a property which is currently stated to be in possession of Verma, who is Junior Vice-President of the Central Bar Association, Lucknow.

The Court had initiated a suo motu case over the incident. An FIR has also been registered in the matter.

In the order passed today, the Bench noted that Verma was allegedly seen carrying a gun on the date of incident and was heard asking one of his accomplices to place it in Shakir's hands so that he could be framed in a criminal case.

"Secondly, after being thrashed badly, their client-Mohd. Shakir was taken away to the Central Bar Association, Lucknow and was illegally detained there. It is only after three or four hours later that the applicants were able to contact their client i.e. Mohd. Shakir who told them that he was at Police Station-Wazirganj, Lucknow," it noted.

However, the Court also noted that so far, there is no evidence that accused used the gun.

"We find that in the case at hand, lawyers ran amok freely, abused, humiliated & manhandled a litigant at will, threatened him with dire consequences, as alleged by the applicants and Mohd. Shakir-the informant of the F.I.R The allegation is that they have cooked up a story to implicate the informant himself. We have already observed that the report of the Police Commissioner says there is no evidence of anybody carrying firearm on the part of the plaintiff or his accomplices nor of its being fired. No such thing is visible in the CCTV footage," the Court said.

Further, the Court noted that Verma has a history of 8 criminal cases filed against him in various police stations. It directed the police to collect information regarding the pending cases against the accused advocates and file a report. It also ordered the police to identify other accused in the case.

"Any dithering in this regard will not be tolerated. Investigation should be taken to its logical conclusion strictly and in accordance with law without any fear or favour. We will consider the status of the investigation on the next date," the Bench said.

[Read Order]