The Bar Council of Delhi has written to the Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, seeking immediate action over the issue of police raid at the office of advocate Mehmood Pracha and registration of a case against him.
Recently, Delhi High Court Women Lawyers’ Forum had written to the President of Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA), Mohit Mathur expressing concern over the same.
The letter by BCD has been signed by Vice Chairman of BCD, Himal Akhtar; Member of BCD, Rajiv Khosla and former Chairman, KC Mittal. it reads,
“We notice anguish and anger amongst the legal community, primarily because it goes to the very root and independent discharge of responsibility by an Advocate, as provided under the Constitution of India being integral part of the Justice Dispensation System, the Advocates Act, 1961 and the Bar Council of India Rules.”
Sections 126 to 129 of Indian Evidence Act provides for privileges to the legal practitioners in connection with communication with clients, the letter highlighted.
The representatives of the Bar Association/Bar Council are obliged to be informed in case of any case against an advocate and taken into confidence by the Delhi Police.
“This broader understanding is to maintain the harmony and cordiality between the two wings of the justice delivery system. This seems to have not been followed in the present case. While we do not want to go to various aspects of the matter, apparently the action of Delhi Police falls short on these aspects, which is a very serious matter as far as the legal community is concerned,“
the letter
Advocate Mehmood Pracha has been representing the accused in Delhi riots cases. He was raided by the Delhi Police on December 24 claiming that it was searching for “incriminating documents” and meta data of the outbox of the official email id of Pracha’s firm.
Pursuant to the raid, Advocate Mehmood Pracha had moved the Patiala House court in Delhi seeking preservation of copies of the video footage of the raids conducted by Delhi police.
The Court had asked for Delhi Police’s response on Mehmood Pracha’s plea in this matter.
The court had also directed the investigating officer to be present in the court on the next hearing date along with the complete video footage of the search.
Update (27.12.2020) – A Delhi Court has directed the preservation of the entire video footage of the police raids at the house of Adv Mehmood Pracha. The Court further stated,”At this stage, only directions for preserving the video footage is deemed necessary. The concerned court can take a call on supplying the video footage to the applicant (Pracha) at an appropriate stage.Let the entire video footage of the search be preserved with the seal of this court and be placed before the concerned court for orders accordingly.”
Read letter by BCD here:
