Ahmedabad: An Ahmedabad court has acquitted Morris Samuel Christian in a 2011 case in which he was accused of cheating by allegedly posing as a lawyer in family court without a licence to practise.Christian made headlines in 2024 when local courts ordered FIRs against him for allegedly acting as an unauthorised arbitrator and conducting arbitration proceedings without legal authority. He was accused of awarding land parcels belonging to the govt and the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) to private parties. The land parcels were valued at crores of rupees.In this case, police filed an FIR against him in Sep 2011, when there was a din at the family court at the Old High Court compound. Members of the family court’s Bar objected to Christian appearing as an advocate in a maintenance case without any licence from the Bar Council of Gujarat. Police were called by other lawyers, and Christian was booked under Section 419 for cheating by impersonation.The family court’s Bar and the Bar Council of Gujarat stated that Christian was not their member and did not possess the required licence to practise. The witnesses said that Christian was found wearing a black coat and a white neckband, similar to what lawyers wear.However, during the trial, the prosecution could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Christian went to the family court as a lawyer. His argument was that he was a member of the Income Tax Bar and went to the family court to get an affidavit prepared.While acquitting Christian, additional chief judicial magistrate D R Thakur said, “The ingredients of Section 419 of IPC are not proven against the accused… The prosecution here failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, and when there is a doubt, the benefit should go to the accused.”
