CBI Case against Lawyer for giving legal opinion - HC frowns
"CBI's reach exceeds its grasp; The CBI's case against Mrs. Nair is riddled with more holes than a colander.”: HC
A lady lawyer had been charged with cheating and forgery by CBI in relation to a legal opinion she gave on some documents pertaining to a housing loan.
The 60 year old lady lawyer approached the Bombay High Court against the CBI case and the High Court came down heavily on CBI. The Court observed,
"No material discloses the commission of any offence by her. To the contrary: the allegations against her are both absurd and inherently improbable. There is no ground whatever for proceeding against her.
Unless we find that there is at least a prima-facie case against an advocate who gave an opinion - a ‘best judgment assessment', as it were, based on her knowledge of the law, her appreciation of the facts and her reading of the documents - that he played an active role in the fraud alleged, we cannot but conclude that there is no case to be made out against that advocate."
The Court believed that this is a fit case for the award of costs against the CBI and in favour of the Petitioner, and that these costs should not be illusory.
The High Court noted, “For three long years, the Petitioner has had her till then unsullied professional reputation besmirched, and for no good reason. That they have done so is plain. It stares us in the face. For no fault of her own, the Petitioner has lost a client (perhaps all to the good, given the Indian Bank's equally deplorable conduct). But she has also had to suffer the slings and arrows of a truly outrageous fortune at the hands of the CBI.”
Though the Court did not impose costs, it warned the CBI that if another such case comes before it, " the CBI will not find us quite so accommodating.”