Guwahati, Apr 24 (PTI) A lawyer representing Congress leader Pawan Khera on Friday urged the Gauhati High Court Chief Justice to recall the order rejecting the politician’s anticipatory bail plea, claiming that the state’s Advocate General represented the complainant, the chief minister’s wife, in the case violating norms of the Bar Council of India.
The lawyer Reetam Singh urged Chief Justice Ashutosh Kumar to intervene to prevent a “serious miscarriage of justice” due to the alleged suppression of facts and conflict of interest by the Advocate General Devajit Saikia.
Singh claimed that Saikia suppressed the ”material and highly relevant fact” that he ”maintains a long-standing debtor-creditor relationship” with both Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his wife Riniki Bhuyan Sharma.
This violates Rules 31, 32 and 33 of the Standards of Professional Conduct and Etiquette framed by the Bar Council of India, he claimed.
These rules focus on maintaining financial and professional integrity between an advocate and their client.
Justice Parthiv Jyoti Saikia on Friday rejected the anticipatory bail petition of Khera in connection with his allegations that the CM’s wife possessed multiple passports and undisclosed properties abroad.
Singh, in his letter to the Chief Justice, claimed that during the course of the argument, the advocate general himself brought on record the election affidavit of the CM, filed on March 20, along with his nomination papers for contesting the Jalukbari assembly constituency.
That very affidavit records outstanding loans of Rs 2 lakh, payable by the CM, and Rs one lakh payable by his wife, to Saikia and the amounts have remained unchanged since 2016, Singh said in the letter.
The lawyer said that he had also written to the Chief Justice last month about “the aforesaid financial transactions and the conflict of interest arising therefrom, in violation of Rules 31, 32 and 33 of the Standards of Professional Conduct and Etiquette framed by the Bar Council of India. A copy of the said complaint is annexed herewith for ready reference.” The Advocate General’s alleged failure to disclose his direct personal financial interest with the litigant and her husband constitutes a “grave suppression of material facts, raising a serious and reasonable apprehension of bias and compromises the principles of natural justice and fair trial guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution”, Singh claimed.
Singh, a member of the legal team representing Khera, appealed to the Chief Justice to take suo motu cognisance of the matter in the interest of justice and recall the order rejecting his client’s anticipatory bail application.
The lawyer also made an appeal that Khera’s petition be heard again by an independent bench, with the state being represented by a counsel free from any conflict of interest.
Following the allegations made by Khera in a press conference, Riniki Bhuyan Sharma filed criminal cases against him at the Guwahati Crime Branch Police Station under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). PTI DG DG NN
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