GUWAHATI: The Gauhati high court imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 each on two advocates, who had signed Vakalatnama for a non-existing petitioner in a frivolous litigation which went on for more than 6 years.
“…what is astonishing is that the judicial process has been successfully taken for a ride for the last more than six years by instituting and continuing a case by a non-existing person,” the single judge bench of Justice Sanjay Kumar Medhi was quoted as saying by Live Law.
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It has been reported that one Beolin Kharbhih is the petitioner in the case, who claimed to be a distant relative of one Sankar Prasad Nath, ex-deputy superintendent of police, CID, Assam.
A case was projected by the petitioner that the said officer was entrusted with some sensitive cases involving politically influential persons of Assam and Meghalaya for which he was receiving threats and was ultimately killed in a hit and run case.
The petitioner claimed that even the wife of Sankar Prasad Nath died under “mysterious circumstances” but no action was taken despite multiple representations and FIRs.
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The present writ petition was filed in 2016 with as many as 26 party respondents, including a sitting judge of the Meghalaya high court.
The court had found that no specific allegation was made against the judge and had accordingly struck off his name.
Meanwhile, investigation revealed that no person in the name of Beolin Kharbhih (petitioner) exists.
The status report filed by the government advocate stated that even the CID could not find any clue of the existence of the petitioner after it made investigation by examining the CCTV footage, business premises with which the petitioner had claimed to be connected; newspaper publications were also made to trace her.
The Gauhati high court in Assam observed: “It appears that the petition has been filed in a well-planned manner from which it is apparent that there has been a conspiracy.”