Haryana Advocate-General Baldev Raj Mahajan on Monday said “necessary action” will be taken against the law officer in the wake of directions given by Additional District and Sessions Judge, Faridabad, Y.S. Rathor, who is hearing the Junaid murder case.
‘Suggesting questions’
Mr. Rathor had on October 25 pointed out during the hearing of the case that Additional Advocate General Naveen Kaushik was assisting the defence counsel of key accused Naresh Kumar during cross-examination of prosecution witnesses.
“He [Mr. Kaushik] was assisting the defence counsel yesterday [October 24] and also at the time of examination of prosecution witness. He has been told that he cannot appear in court being a law officer of the State of Haryana along with the defence counsel. To this, he stated that he had come only to watch the court proceedings. However, he has been assisting the defence counsel at the time of cross-examination of the prosecution witness and suggesting questions to be put to witnesses,” remarked Mr. Rathor.
“I have sought a copy of the court order. Once I get it, necessary action will be taken against the law officer after examining the matter. Keeping in view the court’s observation and directions, I’ll have to ask [the lawyer] for an explanation and take action against him if the allegations are true,” Mr. Mahajan said.
Mr. Rathor had said, “This act of Mr. Kaushik amounts to professional ,misconduct and is against legal ethics and highly unbecoming of an advocate, particularly because he is a law officer in the office of the Advocate-General, Haryana... It [Mr. Kaushik’s appearance with the defence counsel] will send a wrong signal, and also create a feeling of insecurity among the victim party and will adversely affect the aim of the court to conduct a free and fair trial.”
Mr. Rathor said in his order, “Accordingly, a letter be written to the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Chandigarh, for taking up the matter with the State government, the office of the Advocate-General, Haryana, and the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana, Chandigarh, for taking necessary action against him.”
Allegations denied
Meanwhile, Mr. Kaushik denied assisting the defence counsel in the case and said, “I was not appearing for anyone. I was not wearing my robes in court,” he said.
He claimed he went to court just to handover the copy of relevant provision of the Code of Criminal Procedure pertaining to recording of evidence in Hindi to one of the advocates who is known to him and is incidentally the counsel for one of the accused. “The defence counsel requested me to share provisions of law regarding recording of evidence in Hindi. I obliged him as the Bharatiya Bhasha Abhiyan organising secretary in the north region,” he said.
The order pointed out that a plea was moved for recording evidence of witnesses in Hindi by advocate Vishal Jolly, counsel for one of the accused, and he was told that “evidence is being recorded in Hindi and is separately being typed in English on the computer and same practice is adopted in all sessions trials”.
