Latest News
Back
Document:
Fine Imposed For Making Malafide Allegations Against State
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 a 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.
The court said that 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 practicing lawyer, is also expected to verify the same, himself and then leveled such allegations against the respondents. It is also expected that the source of such information as well as material, if any, must be brought on record, and in an absence of the same, the allegations made in the writ petition cannot be accepted. It also noted that neither the accused IPS officer nor his family members authorized 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 authorized the petitioner herein to file the present writ petition for the relief sought. Thus, the petitioner herein has unauthorisedly filed the present writ petition 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 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 the mining mafia and relations with certain sections of 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 a 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 the lawyers that Patidar was missing. Orders in one of those petitions recorded that Patidar was absconding and not cooperating with the investigation. The Court said 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 that serious allegations have been made against the State authorities in order to malign the image of the State-respondents. The present writ petition is apparently an abuse of the process of law by the petitioner. The Court also took exception to the fact that the petitioner has been continuously filing various applications at different forums. 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 of Patidar's family members had instructed Verma to file the petition.
The court opined that the writ petition has been unauthorisedly filed and dismissed the same. The court directed that the writ petition is dismissed with a 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 the order. A copy of this order along with a copy of the writ petition is 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.
Document:
