Supreme Court rules in favour AoR after split verdict by earlier Bench in misconduct case

The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled in favour Advocate-on-record (AOR) P Soma Sundaram and another lawyer in a matter concerning their alleged misconduct in the filing of a case [N Easwaranathan v. State].

A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai and Justices K Vinod Chandran and Joymalya Bagchi passed the order after a Bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma had earlier delivered a split verdict in the matter on April 17.

While Justice Trivedi in her decision had said that Sundaram's name shall remain suspended from AOR Register for one month and advocate Muthukrishnan shall pay a cost of ₹1 lakh, Justice Sharma had disagreed and called for forgiving the lawyers since they had apologised.

The matter then came to be heard by the three-judge Bench headed by CJI Gavai.

The three-judge Bench found it fit to uphold Justice Sharma's order in view of the fact that the lawyers had apologised and they should not be made to pay for their mistakes with their career.

"Justice Satish Chandra Sharma while agreeing with the finding of Justice Trivedi, accepted the apology tendered by both the lawyers. Now the matter has been directed to be placed before a bench of three judges.... It is about the majesty of law lies not in punishing but forgiving them for mistakes. Justice Sharma has reproduced the entire apologies. The judge found it to be honest and heartful. As has been observed Bar and Bench are two wheels of the golden chariot. We say that for a small mistake lawyer should not be castigated which may have serious ramifications affecting career. Thus we accept the view of Justice Sharma," the Court said in its order today.

The case itself stemmed from a criminal case under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and other offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The petitioner, who was represented by Sundaram, had been convicted by trial court and were sentenced to three years. The criminal appeals filed by the petitioner and other accused before the Madras High Court were dismissed in 2023.

The petitioner then filed an appeal before the Supreme Court challenging the High Court judgment and also sought exemption from surrendering.

The same was dismissed by the top court which asked the accused to surrender within two weeks.

The accused then filed another SLP before the apex court through the same AoR, P Soma Sundaram, and again sought exemption from surrendering.

However, the Court on April 1 noted that signatures of petitioners found at the affidavit were not matching and applications filed bore signatures of advocates Soma Sundaram or Muthukrishna but not the petitioner.

Further, no explanation was given as to why earlier direction to surrender was not followed, the Court noted.

The Court eventually passed a split verdict against the lawyers on April 9.

Justice Trivedi in her decision said Sundaram's name from AOR Register shall remain suspended for one month and advocate Muthukrishnan shall pay a cost of ₹1 Lakh.

Justice Sharma said the lawyers have apologized for their conduct and must be forgiven. He also called Justice Trivedi's punishment on the two lawyers "too harsh".