Examine If An Advocate Charged With 7 Theft Cases Is Entitled To Maintain License To Practice?: MP High Court To State Bar Council

The Madhya Pradesh High Court (Jabalpur bench) has asked the Bar Council of Madhya Pradesh as to whether an advocate, who is charged with 7 cases of theft and from whom recovery is made, can represent himself as an advocate or not, and whether such an advocate is entitled to maintain his license to practice.

The Bench of Justice Vivek Agarwal was dealing with the second bail application of an Advocate Ashish Agrawal, who has been accused of committing theft and from whom, recovery was also made.

The case in brief

Essentially, Advocate Ashish Agrawal has been booked under Sections 380 (Theft in dwelling house, etc), 411 (Dishonestly receiving stolen property), 454 (Lurking house-trespass or house-breaking in order to commit offence punishable with imprisonment) of IPC registered at police station Kohefiza, District Bhopal (M.P) and is in custody since November 25, 2021.

It was argued on his behalf that now the investigation in the case is complete and the charge sheet has also been filed, he is an advocate and he has been falsely implicated in this case. It was also argued by him that no recovery had been made from him.

On the other hand, the Panel Lawyer for the State opposed the prayer made by counsel for the applicant and submitted that 2 gold necklaces, 4 ring fingers of gold, ear tops of gold have been recovered from the possession of the applicant beside certain silver items.

Court's order

At the outset, the Court noted that the plea of the applicant, that no recovery had been made from him is factually incorrect as in the recovery memo, it was evident that there was specific recovery from the applicant and not from R.P Jeweller.

In view of such fact of recovery from the applicant, the Court didn't find it to be a fit case for grant of bail and therefore, dismissed his bail plea. However, on a request of Vijay Kumar Shukla, the Panel Lawyer, the Court directed the Bar Council of Madhya Pradesh thus:

"...carry out an investigation whether an advocate charged with 7 cases of theft and from whom recovery is made can represent himself as an advocate or not and whether entitled to maintain his license to practice."

Case title - ASHISH AGRAWAL v. THE STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH
Case citation: 2022 LiveLaw (MP) 27

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