Supreme Court imposes a fine of Rs. 10,000 on Advocate-on-Record (AoR) for filing a petition with factually misleading and incorrect grounds

In a recent order, the Supreme Court (SC) bench comprising Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice Abhay S Oka imposed a cost of Rs. 10 thousand on an advocate-on-record (AoR) for filing a petition with factually misleading and incorrect grounds. While imposing the fine, the bench said that the petition filed in such a casual manner is not tolerated. The order reads, “Grounds ‘A’ and ‘B’, which are factual grounds, are incorrect and misleading. The learned Advocate-on-Record claims that the grounds have been incorporated in the Appeal by mistake. However, we find that it is a case of non-application of mind by the Advocate who drafted the Appeal, and perhaps, these grounds have been picked up from some other Special Leave Petition drafted by the Advocate. We cannot tolerate the Special Leave Petition being filed in such a casual manner.” The SC further directs the AoR for the appellant to pay Rs. 10,000 to the SC Middle Income Group Legal Aid Society within two weeks from March 01, 2024. 

In this case, a bail plea was filed by a man accused of an attempt to murder and rioting. In an order, the Patna High Court denied bail to the accused applicant; therefore, the matter was mentioned before the SC. On January 05, 2024, the SC granted interim bail to the accused which was made absolute on March 01, 2024, stating that “As the charge-sheet has been filed, we do not see any necessity of taking the appellant into custody.” Furthermore, the SC bench clarified, “In the event, the liberty granted is misused by the appellant, it will be open for the State as well as the first informant to apply for cancellation of bail.” During the proceedings, Advocate Hardik Chaudhary, Advocate Azmat Hayat Amanullah, and Advocate Ravi Ranjan appeared for the Bihar Government, and Advocate Satpal Singh (AoR) and Advocate VS Dubey appeared for the accused.