Allahabad High Court imposes ₹5 Lakh costs on lawyer for making mala fide allegations against State, unauthorisedly representing accused

The Allahabad High Court has imposed ₹5 Lakh costs on advocate Mukut Nath Verma, a Delhi based lawyer, for making mala fide allegations against State authorities and unauthorisedly filing plea on behalf of an absconding IPS officer (Dr. Mukut Nath Verma v. Union of India)

. A Division Bench of Justices Surya Prakash Kesarwani and Piyush Agrawal took a dim view of the plea filed by Verma stating that he has made serious allegations in his petition against State authorities but without any supporting document or material to substantiate such allegations.

"Serious allegations have been made against the respondents, which appear to be mala fide in order to malign the image of the State -respondents. The petitioner is expected to disclose true and correct facts before making any allegation against respondents. The petitioner in person, being a practising lawyer, is also expected to verify the same, himself and then levelled such allegations against the respondents. It is also expected that source of such information as well as material, if any, must be brought on record and in absence of the same, the allegations made in the writ petition cannot be accepted," the Court said.

It also noted that neither the accused IPS officer nor his family members authorised the petitioner to file the petition.

"There is nothing on record to show that the accused employee Mani Lal Patidar or any of his family members has authorised the petitioner herein to file the present writ petition for the relief sought. Thus, the petitioner herein has unauthorisedly filed the present writ petition," the Court said.

Therefore, besides imposing costs on the petitioner, the Court also directed the Bar Council of Delhi to take appropriate action against Verma for filing frivolous petitions.

. The petitioner had moved the Court alleging that his client was receiving life threats from "agents of State" and should be provided police protection.

A slew of other prayers were also made against State authorities.

The Court noted that Verma himself had earlier filed a Habeas Corpus petition seeking production of Patidar and the same was pending before the Court.

In that petition, Verma had submitted that Patidar had been conducting operations against mining mafia and relations with certain section in the administration got sour as a result and he was falsely implicated in a few cases.

The Court also noted that Patidar himself had filed lot of criminal writ petitions before the High Court and the orders passed in those petitions revealed that there was no statement made by any of lawyers that Patidar was missing.

Orders in one of those petitions recorded that Patidar was absconding and not cooperating with the investigation.

"From the facts briefly noticed above, it appears that the accused Mani Lal Patidar is absconding and against him proceedings under Section 82, Cr.P.C. has also been initiated and whose criminal miscellaneous writ petitions have been dismissed and anticipatory bail applications have been rejected. The Habeas Corpus writ petition filed by the petitioner herein to produce the accused Mani Lal Patidar is stated to be pending," the Court said.

Under the circumstances, the present writ petition is apparently an abuse of process of law by the petitioner, the Bench opined.

.[Missing IPS Officer] High-ranking officer missing, a serious issue: Allahabad High Court seeks State's response. The Court said that serious allegations have been made against the State authorities in order to malign the image of the State-respondents

"But neither any supporting document has been annexed with the writ petition nor any material is available on record to believe the contention."

. The Court also took exception to the fact that the petitioner has been continuously filing various applications at different forums.

Further, the Court also highlighted in its order that the petitioner has disclosed neither the source of finance of the litigation for his alleged client nor that any Patidar's family members had instructed Verma to file the petition.

"There is no disclosure in the present writ petition about the family members of the accused Mani Lal Patidar. There is no averment in the writ petition that any of the family members of the accused Mani Lal Patidar have either instructed or approached the petitioner herein to file the present writ petition. There is also no allegation in the writ petition that any of the family members of the accused Mani Lal Patidar have approached the petition herein for filing various alleged representations/ repeated representations etc. at various forums. Source of finance towards cost of litigation by the petitioner herein has also not been disclosed in the writ petition," the Bench observed.

. "Non-disclosure of this fact itself indicates some hidden motive in filing the present writ petition, " the order said.

. Hence, the court opined that the writ petition has been unauthorisedly filed and dismissed the same.

"The writ petition is dismissed with cost of Rs. 5 lakh, which shall be deposited by the petitioner with the High Court Legal Services Committee, High Court Allahabad, within one month from today. A copy of this order along with copy of the writ petition be also sent by the Registrar General of this Court to the Bar Council of Delhi for taking appropriate action against the petitioner - Dr. Mukut Nath Verma, Advocate, in accordance with law and without being influenced by any of the observations made in the body of this order," the Court directed.

. [Read Order]

Allahabad High Court imposes ₹5 Lakh costs on lawyer for making mala fide allegations against State, unauthorisedly representing accused

Areeb Uddin Ahmed

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