Prayagraj: Taking serious note of advocates with criminal antecedents, the Allahabad high court has directed that all criminal cases registered against advocates across Uttar Pradesh be transferred from the district where they practice to a geographically proximate but professionally insulated district, based on specified principles.“The transferee district shall be at a distance of not more than 100 km from the advocate’s home district. This distance ensures that the advocate’s professional network and personal influence do not extend materially to the transferee district. While prescribing the 100-km norm, it has been kept in mind that neither the advocates involved nor the witnesses in criminal cases should face undue hardship, and that the distance should not become an impediment to defending the cases,” the court observed.Dismissing a petition filed by Mahammad Kafeel, an advocate from Etawah, the court directed that the matter be listed on Aug 20, for reporting compliance. It also directed the registrar (compliance) to place a consolidated compliance report before the court on the scheduled date.A criminal case had been registered against Kafeel, alleging that he had failed to comply with a court order. Pursuant to the order, police officials reached his residence, pasted the summons on the premises and, following the prescribed procedure, made a public announcement by beating a drum outside his house. Aggrieved by the action, Kafeel filed a complaint alleging defamation and sought the summoning of the police officials. However, the Judicial Magistrate in Etawah rejected his plea, following which he approached the Allahabad HC. Dismissing his petition, the high court held that no case of defamation was made out. Taking note of the petitioner’s antecedents, the court also issued the above directions.Passing the directions, Justice Vinod Diwakar observed: “Law dies twice, once when its officers turn criminal, and again when judges choose silence over judicial courage. In both cases, the rule of law is the first casualty.”The court further observed: “In several bar associations—most notably in Gorakhpur and Kanpur—office-bearing positions are held by individuals with established criminal records. In nearly every district court, organised gangs of law graduates registered with the bar councils have entrenched themselves for the purpose of executing court decrees, resolving disputes outside the court through coercive means, intimidating vulnerable litigants, and carrying out the forcible eviction of tenants and property occupants.”Expressing concern over the functioning of the district judiciary, the court said: “It is also a matter of grave concern that judges of the district courts have, by and large, refrained from taking decisive action in such matters—or have chosen not to acknowledge the gravity of the problem—owing, it appears, to a belief that these socially and politically motivated gangs of law graduates enjoy protection from pressure groups and centres of social and political power brokerage.”The court added, “As a result, young advocates and newly recruited judicial officers, possessing pristine and receptive judicial minds, are finding it increasingly difficult to function effectively, fairly and independently in a deeply unconducive professional environment vitiated by a small but powerful and dominant group.”The high court also expressed dissatisfaction with the report submitted by the Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh, which identified only 105 advocates, out of nearly five lakh enrolled lawyers, as having obtained enrolment through fake degrees.“It must be noted at the outset that this list of merely 105 advocates, compiled by the Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh as part of the verification exercise directed by the Supreme Court of India and the high-power committee constituted for that purpose, appears to be no more than a token and superficial exercise. Given the enormous size of the enrolled advocate population in Uttar Pradesh—one of the largest in the country—the identification of only 105 advocates with fake qualifications after a statewide verification drive is wholly disproportionate to the scale of the problem that realistically exists,” the court observed.The court further noted that the prevalence of forged educational qualifications, enrolments spanning more than three decades (1991–2023), and the misuse of the names of reputed universities, including Allahabad University, strongly suggested that the actual number of advocates practising on the basis of forged qualifications was far higher than what the report reflected.
