TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1956 (10) TMI 31
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
.... of Rs. 242-1-9 out of it. Shri 'M' withdrew that money from the High Court without the authority and the knowledge of the complainant. When, later on, the complainant became aware of it, he demanded refund of the same. Shri 'M' first denied receipt of the money, and thereafter refused to refund it (claiming, as appears later in the evidence, to have appropriated it towards the balance of fees said to be due to him). This complaint was in the usual course put up before his Lordship the Chief Justice who directed the Chamber-Judge, our learned brother, Bhagwati, J., to enquire into it. Notices were issued thereupon both to Shri 'M' and the complainant as well as to three other Advocates of this Court who happened to be associated with that appeal. The enquiry before the learned Judge was fairly elaborate. Thereat, certain conclusions were reached on the basis of which charges were framed against Shri 'M'. The present summons to Shri 'M' is with reference to those charges and this Bench has been constituted as a Special Bench under Order IV, rule 30 of the Supreme Court Rules to deal with this matter. The learned Attorney-General has appeared, on notice, to assist the Court. The rul....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....as may appear to be just and expedient in the circumstances of this case and without affecting the rules of natural justice. We treated the enquiry in Chambers as a preliminary enquiry and heard arguments on both sides with reference to the matter of that enquiry. We came to the conclusion that this was not a case for discharge at that stage. We accordingly reformed the charges framed by our learned brother, Bhagwati J., and added a fresh charge. No objection has been taken to this course. But it is as well to mention that, in our opinion, the terms of Order IV, rule 30 of the Supreme Court Rules do not preclude us from adopting this course, including the reframing of, or adding to, the charges specified in the original summons, where the material at the preliminary enquiry justifies the same. The fresh enquiry before us in Court has proceeded with reference to the following charges as reframed and added to by us. "You, 'M', once an Agent of this Court and thereafter an Advocate on record of this Court, are guilty of professional misconduct in that, Firstly, you having deposited a sum of Rs. 750 in the Punjab High Court towards the printing charges of the appeal paper book in Sup....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....ior Advocate, through a relation of his and requested him to arrange for the conduct of the appeal on his behalf and to accept therefore a fee of Rs. 600 and no more, for himself, a Junior Advocate to assist him as well a for an Agent to be in charge, all taken together. It is the complainant's case that Sardar Raghbir Singh agreed to the same and was paid the said amount of Rs. 600 at the very outset, i. e., a few days before the actual filing of the appeal memorandum into this Court and that he (the complainant) was not directly concerned with the fixing up of the Junior Advocate and of the Agent or with the internal distribution of the said sum of Rs. 600 as between the three persons. His case accordingly is that Shri 'M' was not entitled to any further amount by way of fees and that he unauthorisedly withdrew the amount and appropriated it towards alleged fees. Attar Singh, the complainant, has been examined in support of his case. Sardar Raghbir Singh and Shri Madan have also been examined to substantiate it. The evidence of Sardar Raghbir Singh is that he was approached by Attar Singh through a common friend, that he was asked to accept a consolidated fee of Rs. 600, that in ....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....wo material facts which have to be determined are (1) whether the Agent, Shri 'M', came into this case on a definite arrangement that his entire fee for the case was to be Rs. 100, and (2) whether he was in fact paid the said sum of Rs. 100 by Sardar Raghbir Singh at the outset. The complainant, Attar Singh, is not by himself a direct witness either to the arrangement or to the fact of payment of Rs. 100. The only material fact which he spoke to on this part of the case is as to his arrangement with Sardar Raghbir Singh. It was that he should fix up, a Junior Advocate and an Agent of his own choice, and accept the sum of Rs. 600 as fees for all the three of them together without claiming anything more. He says also that the said sum of Rs. 600 was paid by him to Sardar Raghbir Singh at the very outset. Sardar Raghbir Singh admits the payment. There is no reason to doubt that a sum of Rs. 600 was in fact paid by Attar Singh to Sardar Raghbir Singh a few days before the actual filing of the appeal in May, 1950, though Shri 'M' denies knowledge of it. On the evidence as given before us, Shri Madan is the only direct witness to the arrangement with Shri 'M' that a sum of Rs. 100 is to ....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....hile fairly conceding that there is good deal of room for comment about the evidence of these two gentlemen, urges that we should attach greater value to their present evidence given on oath particularly in view of the fact that both of them admit the complainant's story that Rs. 600 was all that was intended to be paid for all the three together and they categorically admit that they have themselves no further claim against the complainant for the work done by them. The learned Attorney-General submits that it is unreasonable to suppose that while both of them accepted comparatively small fees for the whole case, the Agent, Shri 'M', was promised 'a reasonable fee' without any fixation. He urges further that on his own admission, Shri 'M' can point to nothing in the diaries or registers said to have been maintained by him for his cases, which may substantiate his version. He also urges that in view of the probabilities and the evidence we should accept not merely that there was a definite arrangement with Shri 'M' to accept only Rs. 100 for the entire case but also that he was in fact paid the said sum of Rs. 100 then and there. After having given our consideration to the entire e....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....uently I wrote to the High Court". In answer to the specific question who that somebody was he said "I do not remember exactly who it was". He did not then say that he was the complainant's relation or pairokar. In his cross-examination before us he says "His (Attar Singh's) relation came to me and told me that I should get the money from the High Court". When further cross-examined with reference to his previous statements he said that when he used the phrase "with his permission" in his affidavit he meant to indicate the agent or pairokar of Attar Singh and when further pressed as to who that relation was and whether he knows his name he was unable to give any satisfactory answers. His evidence on this part of the case is highly unsatisfactory and cannot be accepted. We have no hesitation in coming to the conclusion that he has not proved the specific oral authority, which he has pleaded, for the withdrawal of the balance amount. What is next relied upon in support of the authority is the Vakalatnama executed by Attar Singh in his favour. The Vakalatnama is in form No. 3 of the Fifth Schedule of the Supreme Court Rules, 1950, before their amendment in 1954. What is relied upon ....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....1) whether Shri 'M' intimated Attar Singh about the withdrawal of the unspent balance of printing charges, (2) whether Shri 'M' intimated Attar Singh that any fee remained due and made any demand in that behalf, and (3) whether Shri 'M' was justified in retaining the amount towards fees without lodging a bill for taxation against his client. It is now necessary to recall the relevant facts and enumerate some further facts. Criminal Appeal No. 12 of 1950 was filed into this Court on May 11, 1950, by the Agent, Shri 'M', on the basis of a vakalatnama signed by Attar Singh without date and accepted by Shri 'M' on May 11, 1950. Attar Singh says that when he signed the vakalatnama there were blanks therein and that after signing, he gave the vakalatnama with the blanks to Sardar Raghbir Singh. It is his evidence that having fixed the engagement with Sardar Raghbir Singh and paid the money into his hands, he went away leaving the actual filing of the appeal, on a later date, to Sardar Raghbir Singh. Shri 'M' who accepted the vakalatnama on May 11, 1950, and who filed the appeal memorandum into Court on the same date with the signatures thereon, also of Sardar Raghbir Singh and Shri Mada....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....aring, later on, in November, 1952. It was Shri Umrigar who argued the appeal. Admittedly Shri 'M' was also present at the hearing and instructed Shri Umrigar. The judgment in the appeal was delivered on the 5th December, 1952, allowing the appeal and remanding it for further hearing by the Sessions Court, as an appellate court, on the evidence on record. It would appear that nearly two years later, i. e., on November 24, 1954, Attar Singh applied to the Punjab High Court stating that he had paid Rs. 750 for the printing charges of the record in his appeal and that some balance was lying to his credit out of the said amount and requesting that the same may be remitted to him. He received a reply thereto from the Deputy Registrar of the Punjab High Court dated October 17, 1955, intimating that the unspent balance of Rs. 242-1-9 was refunded to his counsel, Shri 'M' of the Supreme Court, and advising him to contact him in this behalf. It is in view of this information that Attar Singh ultimately filed on December 5, 1955, a complaint on which the present proceedings were initiated. The evidence of Attar Singh on this part of the case is quite simple. He says that some time after the....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....s that at the suggestion of some friends, he lodged the complaint with the Registrar of this Court. As against this, Shri 'M's evidence is as follows. When the printed record was received from the High Court, and he got intimation of the same, he wrote a letter dated December 21, 1951, to Attar Singh intimating that the printed record had been received in the Supreme Court, that further steps have to be taken and that he is to supply him with funds therefore. He says that thereafter Attar Singh's relation came to him in January, 1952, and told him to write to the High Court to get a refund of the unspent balance of the printing charges. He admits that he received the refund in March, 1952, and says that he appropriated the same towards his fee. He also says that when in May, 1952, Attar Singh came in connection with the expected hearing of the appeal, he told him about the unspent balance having been received by him and that later on, i. e., after the hearing of the appeal was over, he told him that the bill for the work done by him in connection with the appeal would be about Rs. 500. He denies the version of Attar Singh that he was not aware of the unspent balance having been dr....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....er. If the letter is true, one would have expect some further letter to have been written to him with the correct address on proper enquiry. It is to get over this difficulty that the story has been put forward by Shri 'M' of a relation of Attar Singh having contacted him in January, 1952, and instructing him to withdraw the unspent balance, if any, of the printing charges. There is nothing to show that these alleged instructions were by ways of response to the above letter. It is not a little surprising that the said relation does not appears to have cared to ascertain whether any money was in fact available or was received. But it is unnecessary to dwell on this any further because we have already noticed the entire evidence relating to these alleged instructions of the relation and seen how unsatisfactory it is. We are clearly of the opinion that the story of instructions by the relation is wholly unreliable. In that view, assuming, without deciding that the letter of December 21, 1951, is true, it is all the more significant that there are no further reminders to Attar Singh to his correct address right up to May, 1952, i. e., when the appeal became ready for hearing, though in....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
.... which on his own showing, he had received from his client. All the rest of the bill submitted by him is a claim for fees for various items of work said to have been done. If it be true, as he says, that he sent in December, 1951, a letter to Attar Singh demanding fees, it is all the more surprising that he never made any further written demand either during the pendency of the appeal or at least sent a bill after the disposal thereof, for the balance of the fees, whether or not he would have felt it advisable later on to take the matter to court for taxation. This admitted inaction renders it probable that, having obtained the refund of a substantial amount of over Rs. 200 after December, 1951, without the specific oral instructions or the knowledge of his client or his agent - as we have already found - he has kept discreetly silent, without intimating to the client the fact of his having received the balance and without making a demand against him for the fees. It is only now that he claims a lien on the said amount for a bill which he puts forward, and pleads justification for the retention and appropriation of the amount on the basis of that bill. Learned counsel for Shri 'M' ....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....t of the case what is really significant is that at the earliest opportunity which Shri 'M' had, he did not put forward his present specific case, of intimation of the refund and of demand of the fees. Para 5 of the complaint of Attar Singh dated December 5, 1955, states as follows : "I had throughout been making enquiries from Shri 'M' and he has consistently denied having received any money from the High Court". In his reply dated December 16, 1955, Shri 'M' has contented himself with a bare denial as follows : "Para 5 of the application is emphatically denied and not admitted". Even in his later statement, in the form of an affidavit date March 5, 1956, filed before Bhagwati, J. all that he says is that "on December 21, 1951, he requested Attar Singh to remit funds for prosecuting the appeal and that with his permission wrote to the High Court on January 17, 1952, for the refund of the balance. He has attempted to explain that by "his permission" he meant "his pairokar's permission". We have found that, on the evidence and probabilities, the story of pairokar's permission cannot be accepted as reliable. The story of his having directly informed Attar Singh about his having g....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....High Court. This is what he admitted in the enquiry before Bhagwati, J. It may further be noticed that Shri 'M' states in his evidence as follows : "After I received this money (unspent balance) I appropriated it towards my fee. There was no settlement of fees between me and my client. Raghbir Singh never told me that I should get only Rs. 50 or Rs. 100". He was cross-examined whether the appropriation was with the consent of the client, as appears from the following. "Q. Coming to May, 1952, when you said you told the client that you had received money did you tell him that you appropriated the money. A. Yes. Q. No question therefore remained of any lien. The money was appropriated towards fees. A. This is all opinion whether it was lien or appropriation. It was lien. So I appropriated it. Q. You had lien. A. Yes. Q. You appropriated with the client's consent. A. The consent was there". How unsatisfactory his answers are as to the client's consent for appropriation even on his own case that the amount was appropriated is noticeable. We are, therefore, of the opinion that the following facts have been proved. Without the knowledge of or intimation to Attar Singh, Shri ....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....in dealing with cases of professional misconduct is not concerned with ordinary legal rights, but with the special and rigid rules of professional conduct expected of and applied to a specially privileged class of persons who, because of their privileged status, are subject to certain disabilities which do not attach to other men and which do not attach even to them in a non-professional character". ........"He (a legal practitioner) is bound to conduct himself in a manner befitting the high and honourable profession to whose privileges he has so long been admitted; and if he departs from the high standards which that profession has set for itself and demands of him in professional matters, he is liable to disciplinary action". It appears to us that the fact of there being no specific rules governing the particular situation, which we are dealing with, on the facts found by us, is not any reason for accepting a less rigid standard. If any, the absence of rules increases the responsibility of the members of the profession attached to this Court as to how they should conduct themselves in such situations, having regard to the very high privilege that an Advocate of this Court now enj....