: The Bar Council of Kerala (BCK) has dropped proceedings initiated against Laly Vincent, lawyer and vice president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), on charges of professional misconduct.
In its order, the BCK said that having considered the entire matter, it found that the lawyer had not indulged in any professional or other misconduct and decided to drop further proceedings in the matter.
The proceedings were initiated on a complaint filed by P.M. Abu Thahir of Kochi alleging professional misconduct. According to him, Ms. Laly Vincent had collected fee from both the parties after settling his case. He said that he had filed a case against his father, P.K. Moyithu, following a dispute over ownership of his family property. He had engaged Ms. Laly Vincent as his counsel. The case was filed on November 4, 2013. A fee of Rs.25,000 was given to her.
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Later, in 2014 , his father filed a petition for settling the dispute after reaching a consensus between them. As per the settlement, his father handed him a cheque of Rs.50 lakh. His counsel Ms. Laly Vincent also accepted Rs.5 lakh from his father. When asked, she told him that Rs.5 lakh was her fee for settling the case.
He submitted that accepting fee from the opposite party was unheard of and illegal. He had sought to take action against her for professional misconduct.