Patna HC Registers Suo Moto PIL Against Advocate Accused Of Attempting To Rape His Law Intern

The Patna High Court registered a suo moto Public Interest Litigation against Advocate Niranjan Kumar, who was accused of attempting to rape a law intern in his office.

The Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Partha Sarthy noted that the same advocate had been involved in the past incident of similar nature and further said that “We direct the Registry to forthwith register the resolution/complaint presented before this Court as a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) and after processing the same, list it today itself.”

In this case, the Advocate had allegedly molested his lady intern and attempted to rape her at his workplace on December 23, 2022. The 21-year-old intern was a second-year law student at Chanakya National Law University (CNLU), who was working with the accused as an intern since December 1, 2022.

Senior Counsel Sunil Kumar Mandal and Senior Advocate Y.C. Verma appeared for the respondents.

The Coordination Committee of three Associations of the Patna High Court- Body of a Lady Advocates of the Patna High Court; Secretary of the Bar Association; and the General Secretary of the Lawyers’ Association presented a resolution before the division bench and requested the Court to take up the matter suo moto and order an investigation into it.

The Committee further asked the Court to bar the entry of accused advocate into the High Court premises till a decision was taken on the suspension of his license by the Bar Council.

The PIL was registered and placed before the Court and during the hearing of the matter, a report of the earlier enquiry was also placed by the registry before the Court in the sealed cover.

The State Bar Council had already passed a resolution prohibiting the accused lawyer from practicing in any Court and the BCI had also suspended the lawyer, after a request was made by the Vice-chancellor of CNLU for the same.

Consequently, notices were issued to the accused advocate and the matter was posted for further hearing on 19th January, 2023.

Cause Title- Court on its own motion on the basis of resolution/complaint passed by Coordination Committee v. The State of Bihar & Ors.

Click here to read /download the Order