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Remarking that there is no cooperation or representation at all on the part of the Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh, the Supreme Court has directed its Chairman and Secretary to remain present before the Court on December 8, 2021 with regard to the matter pertaining to filing of fake claim petitions by advocates in the state.

During the last hearing, Advocate Praveen Agrawal, who appeared on behalf of the Bar Council of U.P. informed the court that he was not receiving any further instructions from the Bar Council .

The Court had then observed that it was very unfortunate that in such a serious matter, where the allegations were of filing of fake claim petitions in which the advocates are also alleged to have been involved, the Bar Council of U.P. was not giving instructions to their advocate which showed the callousness and insensitiveness on its part .

The top court had then requested Senior Advocate Manan Kumar Mishra, Chairman Bar Council of India to look into the same.

When the matter came up for hearing on Tuesday, the Court found that there was still no representation on behalf of the Bar Council.

Noting that the bar council was not taking the allegations seriously, a bench of Justices MR Shah and Sanjiv Khanna said,

"Filing of the fake claim petitions is a very serious matter. It ultimately affects the credibility of the institution as a whole. Legal profession is always considered to be a very noble profession and such things of filing fake claim petitions in the Courts cannot be tolerated. It is the duty of the Bar Council of the State and the Bar Council of India to maintain the dignity and restore the glory of the legal profession."

The court also perused the Status Report on affidavit which was filed by the concerned SIT.

It then remarked that the SIT was constituted by the Allahabad High Court to look into the filing of the fake claim petitions and the investigation in most of the cases/FIRs was reported to be pending.

"We deprecate the negligence and or lethargy on the part of the SIT in not concluding the investigation even after 4-5 years and the of the FIR", said the Bench.

With this view, the bench has also directed the Investigating Officer of the SIT to remain personally present before it on the next date of hearing.

AOR Ardhendumauli Kumar Prasad, appearing on behalf of Bar Council of India also stated at the Bar that despite the fact that Bar Council of U.P. was not cooperating and sending the names of the Advocates who were indulged in such illegal activities, if the BCI received the names of the Advocates involved in filing fake claim petitions necessary disciplinary action shall be taken by the BCI against them.

This prompted the Court to direct the SIT to send a list of Advocates involved in filing the fake claims against whom the FIRs/Charge sheets are filed within a period of three days  so that further disciplinary action can be taken by the BCI.

Cause Title: Safiq Ahmad v ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co. Ltd. & Ors.