The case involved an advocate who was accused of being involved in fraud because a fabricated PoA was allegedly used in a tenancy dispute. The lawyer had been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including those related to cheating and forgery.
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court of India has ruled that advocates are not required to verify whether a power of attorney (PoA) given to them by a litigant is genuine.
This decision was made by a bench comprising Justices AS Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan, who clarified that lawyers should only check the document’s authenticity if they have valid reasons to doubt it.
The bench stated:
“When a litigant claiming to be a power of attorney holder of others, approaches a member of the Bar and shows him the original power of attorney and engages him to file a case, the Advocate is not expected to get the genuineness of the power of attorney verified, unless he has a reasonable doubt about its genuineness.”
This means that if a person gives a PoA to an advocate and asks them to file a case, the lawyer can rely on the document without independently verifying whether it is real, unless they suspect something is wrong.
Case Background
The case involved an advocate who was accused of being involved in fraud because a fabricated PoA was allegedly used in a tenancy dispute. The lawyer had been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including those related to cheating and forgery.
The advocate requested to be discharged from the criminal trial, arguing that they had no role in the alleged fabrication. The Supreme Court ruled in the advocate’s favor and dismissed the charges against them, as no case was made out based on the presented evidence.
The top court decided that the advocate should not be held responsible for verifying the authenticity of the PoA and should not be prosecuted. However, the court clarified that this decision applied only to the advocate and did not comment on the allegations against the other accused individuals in the case.
The court noted:
“The allegations against the other accused were not addressed in the judgment.”
[ Case Title: Ismailbhai Patel v. State of Gujarat]
