Rajasthan High Court Transfers Matrimonial & Criminal Cases After Lawyer-Wife Influenced Local Bar To Act Against Husband's Counsel

The Rajasthan High Court granted relief to the accused-petitioner by directing transfer of his matrimonial and maintenance cases from Sawai Madhopur to Jaipur after finding out that owing to his advocate wife's influence on the Bar Association, no lawyer was ready to represent him before the courts situated at Sawai Madhopur.While underscoring the significance of the fundamental right to get legal assistance, the bench of Justice Anoop Kumar Dhand observed that the inability of a litigant to secure effective legal assistance due to reluctance caused by Bar Association under the influence or creation of hostile environment by the respondent compromised the fundamental principle of fair trial. “Courts are temple of justice and they should remain open for all litigants. Every litigant is constitutionally and legally entitled to a fair and impartial hearing. The litigants cannot be arbitrarily denied their right to seek justice and present their case before the Court of law.”Matrimonial dispute arose between the petitioner and the respondent, leading to criminal as well as maintenance cases against the petitioner. During the pendency of these cases, the respondent, being a practicing advocate herself, approached the local Bar Association, by writing a letter, seeking disciplinary action against the lawyers representing the petitioner. Based on her request, the president of the Bar Association issued notices to the petitioner's counsels resulting in unwillingness on part of any counsel in representing the petitioner. Hence, transfer petitions were filed on his behalf. It was submitted on behalf of the respondent that the notices issued to the counsels were withdrawn on the same day by the office bearers of the Bar Association. After hearing the contentions, the Court opined that irrespective of the withdrawal of the notice, considering the fact that the respondent was successfully able to influence the Bar Association into taking action against the counsels, it was clear that the petitioner had no hope of getting a fair trial opportunity before the courts at Sawai Madhopur. It was held that since getting legal assistance was a fundamental right under Article 21, if the petitioner was not able to engage a counsel of his choice, it was court's duty to provide him meaningful legal aid at state expenses. “While the quality of the defence or the caliber of the counsel would not militate against the guarantee to a fair trial sanctioned by Articles 21 and 22, respectively, of the Constitution, a threshold level of competence and due diligence in the discharge of his duties as a defence counsel would certainly be the constitutional guaranteed expectation.”The Court highlighted that petitioner's inability to engage counsel owing to reluctance caused by the local factors by the respondent was a valid ground to transfer the trial under Section 407, CrPC. “There is no question of inconvenience of the complainant respondent for conducting the proceedings of above cases at Sawai Madhopur because she is mis-using her position of being lawyer before the trial court and not allowing any lawyer to appear on behalf of the petitioner. Such an act and conduct of the respondent and the local Bar Association is not appreciable and is liable to be condemned and deprecated.”Accordingly, the petition was allowed and it was directed to transfer the proceedings to Jaipur. Title: Manoj Kumar Meena v Smt. Preeti Meena and other connected petitionCitation: 2025 LiveLaw (Raj) 371Click Here To Read/Download Order

Rajasthan High Court Transfers Matrimonial & Criminal Cases After Lawyer-Wife Influenced Local Bar To Act Against Husband's Counsel

Nupur Agrawal

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