Cannot allow lawyers to cheat innocent members of the public, says Bombay High Court [Updated]

The Bombay High Court’s Kathawalla J. has given the Mumbai Police another four weeks to execute a non-bailable warrant against lawyer Rajiv Bhatia. The warrant, issued way back in January this year, raises several questions on the state of the legal profession today..Bhatia first found himself at the receiving end of the High Court’s ire after he sought time to remove office objections, including the non-payment of court fees. It turns out that the suit was dismissed for failure to remove the office objections; the court fees were not paid. Furthermore, Bhatia hid this fact of dismissal from the court, and sought more time to remove the objections without even seeking to restore the suit..On December 18 last year, the court passed an order directing Bhatia to remain present in court at the next hearing to be held three days later. The order was to be served at Bhatia’s office, and residential address. However, it turned out that Bhatia had moved office, and sold his residential premises; the lawyer was “absconding”..But that is not all Bhatia did..As recorded in the order of December 21 last year, previous clients of Bhatia, Akshay and Anchal Seth, claimed that the lawyer had cheated them of more than six lakh rupees. The Seths also alleged that Bhatia had duped them in connection with real estate investments..All in all, these were allegations that Kathawalla J. did not take lightly. His December 21 order reads,.“…Bhatia in his capacity as Advocate is taking up matters and is thereafter cheating his clients and is leaving them in the lurch thereby causing grave harm, injury, damage and prejudice to innocent members of the public..”.Less than two weeks later, a non-bailable warrant was issued against Bhatia, hand delivered to the Commissioner of Police. Just eight days later, the DCP Ravindra Shisve appeared in the High Court, giving a personal assurance that all efforts were being made to trace the absconding lawyer..Since then though, progress has been slow. The police were able to trace Bhatia’s wife; however, she had left Bhatia and returned to her parents’ residence. On March 14, the police stated that they were unable to trace Bhatia’s whereabouts..The High Court was not satisfied..On March 29 this year, Kathawalla J. passed another order [pdf], reasoning that,.“Advocate Rajiv Bhatia has cheated several litigants and if the police is unable to trace his whereabouts and arrest him despite the non-bailable warrant issued against him as far as on 21st December, 2015, Advocate Rajiv Bhatia shall continue to commit criminal offences and cheat the gullible members of the public, which cannot be allowed. .In view thereof, the Commissioner of Police, Mumbai shall appoint a special team of police officers headed by a Dy. Commissioner of Police to investigate the whereabouts of Advocate Rajiv Bhatia and to execute the non-bailable warrant.”.Since then, the matter has been listed four times. On each occasion, the police have been granted more time to locate Bhatia. The matter has now been listed for September 30 at 3 pm..Interestingly enough, the Seths had also filed a complaint before the state bar council. Although Kathawalla J.’s December 21 order directs the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa to clarify what happened to this complaint by January 11, 2016, the subsequent orders make no mention of the bar council’s reply, if any..The High Court may not have made any comments on the legal profession, but the case certainly raises some questions on bar councils, and the accountability of lawyers. This is certainly not the first case wherein clients have complained of being cheated by lawyers, and is unlikely to be the last..Update on September 8, 2016: As per this Times of India report, Bhatia was presented in court yesterday, where the judge asked him to surrender his sanad..(HT to Pratik aka SuperSelector5 for the tip).Read the December 21 order below.