Lawyer fined Rs 2K for ‘highly deprecable’ conduct

Vadodara: A woman lawyer has drawn district court’s flak for displaying poor conduct and fined Rs 2,000 for frivolous proceedings by seeking transfer of a criminal case lodged against her.
Lawyer Dipti Mistry, who is accused of assaulting her father, had filed a plea with the district court, alleging that the trial court hearing her case has a ‘pre-judicial’ approach towards her and that she will not get justice.
The court of principal district judge M R Mengdey junked Mistry’s recently and fined her for wasting the court's time.
When the case of assault came on board on November 26 last year, Mistry turned up at the court at 11am and informed that she would come after completing some work. Mistry said that on hearing this, the judicial magistrate got angry and addressed her as an ‘accused’. The use of the term ‘accused’, according to Mistry, showed the pre-judicial approach of the approach towards her.
But the truth was revealed before the district court when the trial court submitted its remarks in connection with the transfer application. “The applicant (Mistry) had not appeared at 11am and the witness, who happens to be her mother, could not be examined till 1.15pm and the matter was posted for 3pm. The applicant turned up at 1.15pm and was informed that the matter will be taken up at 3pm on the same day,” the district court’s order stated.
At 3pm too, neither Mistry nor her advocate appeared, and the court started recording Mistry’s mother’s deposition. The court also took a note of Mistry’s conduct in the proceedings. When Mistry and her advocate showed up 3.15 pm, they were shown the witness’s deposition and the mention of Mistry’s conduct. After going through the mention, Mistry behaved in an unruly behaviour with the presiding officer, the order stated.
Dismissing her application, the court stated that the conduct of Mistry before the trial court is ‘highly deprecable’. She was asked to pay Rs 2,000 for the frivolous proceedings.