Lawyers seek action against acting president of State Consumer Commission for deciding own case

The Consumer Courts Advocates’ Association (CCAA) for Maharashtra and Goa have initiated steps against the acting-president Maharashtra State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (SCDRC) Dr Santosh K Kakade for judicial impropriety after he adjudicated a case in which he himself was a party. .The members of the association discovered this 'rarest-of-rare' instance from August 2021 when Kakade who was then a non-judicial member of the SCDRC, had dismissed a matter in which he was one of the respondents. The matter was a medical negligence complaint first filed before the District Forum at Solapur, with a hospital as the first respondent and Kakade as the second respondent. Kakade had even filed a reply to the complaint. The order of the district forum dismissing the complaint was challenged before the SCDRC. The appeal had been admitted in 2002 and was adjourned sine die (with no appointed date for resumption).The appeal finally came up for hearing in 2021 in August before Kakade, who was the single member presiding over the case. The appeal was then dismissed by him on the same date for want of prosecution."None present for parties inspite of issuing notices to them. It appears that the Appellant is not interested in prosecuting the appeal. Hence the appeal is dismissed in default," Dr Kakade had recorded in the order. .The same was discovered by Dr Gopinath Shenoy, one of the members of the CCAA, who produced a certified copy of the order before the Managing Committee of the association.The Committee asked Shenoy to submit a formal complaint with them which was promptly complied with, and the Committee decided to call for an urgent meeting. .Meanwhile Kakade allegedly got a whiff about the certified copies and while sitting in the Aurangabad seat of the SCDRC, took on board the disposed of appeal, and reviewed his August 2021 order. He observed in the same that the dismissal order was passed inadvertently. .The CCAA concluded that both the orders, that of dismissal order and review were absolutely illegal.The Secretary of CCAA advocate Mohit Bhansali then lodged a complaint with Maharashtra's Secretary of Food and Civil Supply Department, seeking Kakade's removal as president and member of the SCDRC. "The acts of Kakade amount to gross judicial misconduct, dishonesty, judicial impropriety, act of moral turpitude and abuse of official position," the strongly-worded complaint highlighted. The complaint of February 26 alleged several instances of abusive language and improper treatment of bar members by Kakade. The complaint pointed out that the family members of Kakade were part of a company, Core Indian Institute of Legal Medicine Private Limited, that purportedly gave legal advice to medical professionals..Advocate Rohan Cawaskar, a member of the CCAA, pointed out that Kakade had also been hearing more of cases pertaining to medical negligence than other kinds of cases."There is heavy unrest amongst the lawyers due to this judicial indiscipline" Cawaskar said..Purusant to this complaint, the CCAA convened a urgent general body meeting on February 27 where they took note of the complaints of several lawyers of the association. During the meeting, there were four resolutions that were unanimously passed:Filing a formal protest with the president of the National Commission of Consumer Redressal Commission, the Chief Justice of India, the Chief Justice of Bombay High Court, and the Maharashtra government;Writ petition or any other appropriate legal proceedings be filed with the Bombay High Court seeking Kakade's removal;Initiation of appropriate action and steps to protest against the judicial misconduct of Kakade to uphold the integrity and independence of the judiciary; and Pending the enquiry by authorities against Kakade, the members and non-members will abstain from appearing before him (this was stressed as Kakade refused to meet with the president of the Bar, Dr Uday Warunjikar, to discuss the issue)..Bar & Bench tried to get a comment from Kakade, however there has been no response yet. The story will be updated with Kakade’s version as and when a response is received.