HC notice to Bar council to prevent getting decree from courts with fabricated papers

Court's observations come after noticing status report of probe by CID

The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday ordered issue of notice to the Karnataka State Bar Council (KSBC) and the Advocates’ Association, Bengaluru, to prevent instances like obtaining of a decree related to a property by using fabricated records from the Court of Small Causes in Bengaluru city.

The involvement of the members of the Bar and the notaries cannot be ruled out and the KSBC will have to be impleaded to take precautionary measures, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice N.S. Sanjay Gowda observed after noticing from the status report of the probe submitted by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

Meanwhile, the Bench appointed advocate Shridhar Prabhu as amicus curiae to assist the court.

The investigation was handed over to the CID to probe the First Information Report (FIR) registered based on the complaint filed by Registrar of Court of Small Causes in December, 2020, alleging that a decree was obtained based the fabricated documents after the High Court in 2020 set aside the decree on finding that it was obtained using fabricated documents.

Another FIR

The CID is also probing another FIR, registered earlier, based on the complaint filed on behalf of the Shah Harilal Bhikhabhai and Company, which had alleged that some miscreants secured decree against it by way of compromise before the Court of Small Causes without making the company as a party.

Internal inquiry

The High Court in November 2020 had also directed the Court of Small Causes to initiate an internal inquiry against the suspected officials of the court while pointing out that fraud, forgery and fabrication ordinarily do not happen without the involvement of insiders.

The Division Bench has treated the matter as a PIL petition as the single bench had asked the Registrar General to take further necessary follow-up action.