STATE TIMES NEWS
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday ordered a CBI enquiry in a case in which a petitioner had denied filing an appeal and claimed that he had never hired any of the lawyers present in the court to file a case on his behalf.
A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma said though the petitioner, Bhagwan Singh, had never met any of the said lawyers nor instructed them to file the proceedings, the parties, with the help and assistance of the lawyers, had tried to misuse and abuse the process of law and malign the stream of justice.
“We deem it appropriate to hand over the investigation of the case to the CBI. The
CBI shall register a regular case after holding a preliminary inquiry, if necessary to do so, against all the persons found involved and responsible, and shall investigate all the links leading to the commission of the alleged crimes and fraud on court.
“The Director, CBI is directed to do the needful in this regard and submit a report to this court within two months,” the bench said.
The court said a matter assumes serious concern when advocates, who are officers of the court, are involved and when they actively participate in ill-motivated litigation of unscrupulous litigants and assist them in misusing and abusing the process of law to achieve their ulterior purposes.
The court said people repose immense faith in the judiciary and the Bar, being an integral part of the justice-delivery system, has been assigned a very crucial role for preserving the independence of justice and the very democratic set up of the country.
“The legal profession is perceived to be essentially a service-oriented, noble profession and lawyers are perceived to be very responsible officers of the court and an important adjunct of the administration of justice.
“In the process of overall depletion and erosion of ethical values and degradation of professional ethics, the instances of professional misconduct are also on the rise. There is a great sanctity attached to the proceedings conducted in a court,” the bench said.
It said every advocate putting his signature on vakalatnamas and documents to be filed in courts, and every advocate appearing for a party in a court is presumed to have filed the proceedings and put his appearance with all sense of responsibility and seriousness.
No professional, much less a legal professional, is immune from being
prosecuted for his criminal misdeeds, it added.
“While the finest of the legal minds and legal eagles on the Bench and in the Bar of the Supreme Court are busy developing the best of the jurisprudence and laying down the best of the laws for the country, there are certain sinister cabal of unscrupulous litigants and a coterie of their counsellors, who are always busy in taking undue advantage of the systemic lacunae and in misusing the process of law, in turn damaging the image of the courts as also of the entire legal fraternity and legal profession.
“The huge quantum of workload in the courts, limitations of the human agencies in manning the justice-delivery system and the fertile minds of the unscrupulous litigants and their legal counsellors are some of the factors responsible for not allowing the justice-delivery system to work as effectively and efficiently as it is expected to work,” the bench said.
The court said wrongdoers must fear the law that they will be punished, innocents must be assured that they will not be prosecuted and victims must be confident that they will get justice.
“This is what a citizen of a democratic country like India, governed by the rule of law, would legitimately expect from the courts. The courts are called the ‘Temple of Justice’.
“However, often brazen attempts are being made to abuse and misuse the process of law by committing frauds on courts. This is one of such cases where such an attempt has been made to pollute the stream of justice. With this little preface, let us deal with the facts of the case,” the bench said.