HS Bawa/Yes Punjab
Jalandhar, August 14, 2022:
A controversy has erupted over a list of 140 lawyers allegedly having fake degrees or practicing on fake licenses issued after a thorough inquiry by the Disciplinary Committee of the Bar Council of Punjab & Haryana. The list contained the names of 47 genuine advocates and admitting the lapse, a fresh list of these 47 has now been issued.
Chairman of Disciplinary Committee Mr. CM. Munjal has now written a new letter to the President of Ludhiana District Bar Association saying that 47 out of 140 lawyers have been found to be genuine.
Along with this letter, the Disciplinary Committee of the ‘Bar Council’ has also issued a list of 47 lawyers who have been found genuine after the re-examination but one affected lawyer, Mr. Rajinder Pal Singh Babbar, whose name was there in the first controversial list, has claimed that although a list of 47 genuine lawyers has been released, the number of genuine lawyers had reached 60 by Saturday evening.
The Disciplinary Committee of the ‘Bar Council’ along with its report, initially issued two lists. The first list had the names of 140 advocates and their license numbers and it was claimed that the license numbers of these genuine advocates practicing elsewhere were being used by ‘fake advocates’. The second list contained the names of 140 persons who were said to be without or fake degrees and with fake licenses.
The disciplinary committee of the ‘Bar Council’ did not stop here. It sent the list of ‘fake advocates to the District and Sessions Judge, Ludhiana, requesting him to restrain these lawyers from appearing in the courts. Going further, the list was also recommended to be sent to the Commissioner of Police, Ludhiana for taking action against the ‘erring’ persons practicing as lawyers.
Genuine advocates among the ‘tainted’ 140 practicing under the correct names and license numbers, had to bear the brunt of the report of the Disciplinary Committee of the Bar Council. They had to face mental trauma and their reputations were also put at stake.
After this matter came to light, the genuine lawyers and their supporters in the fraternity, protested. YesPunjab is now carrying the new list of 47 genuine lawyers, that has been released by the Bar Council. If any other affected lawyer comes up with another claim along with a revised list by Bar Council, YesPunjab will publish it dutifully.
It may be recalled that Disciplinary Committee which included Mr. CM Munjal as Chairman, Mr. Harish Rai Dhanda as a member, and Mr. Vikas Bishnoi as a co-opted member had prepared a detailed report and issued a list which was published by Yes Punjab.
It will be interesting to see how many of the 140 lawyers are found to be genuine and how many are actually found to be working on fake degrees and licenses. However, this case has focused this debate on the fact that there are such cases and it is also being discussed that this phenomenon may not be limited to Ludhiana only.
In the same case, so far a ‘fake’ lawyer has accused another lawyer that he had got him a degree for one and a half lakh rupees while for a fake license he was charged two and a half lakh rupees.
See below a copy of the new letter issued by the Disciplinary Committee of the Bar Council.
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