Patiala House Bar Association stands with adv Pracha in court

New Delhi: We will give you the target data that you want but will not stand by such raids at a lawyer's office which are "illegal" and "unacceptable", President of Patiala House Bar Association R K Wadhwa argued before a Delhi court in connection with the second raid conducted by the Delhi Police Special Cell at Advocate Mehmood Pracha's office earlier this month.

Arguing before the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Dr. Pankaj Sharma, Wadhwa, appearing on behalf of the bar, said: "We are telling you that we will give you everything, do you want me to give my entire system to you?..." He added that, "I'm very clear...we cannot allow such things...this is no way, the bar is against all these things...there are details of several clients in that system...with folded hands we are ready to give it to the court…"

On this, Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad told the court that the arguments imply that the court mould the law so that there is a separate class of people that is above the court. "The application has no permit of law...there is no maintainability...we have identified the system, we wanted to see the system...the application has no sanctity before the law, end of the day investigation has not been done, applicant wants a special procedure for me because I fall within a separate class of people".

In response, Wadhwa submitted: "...being lawyers we have some responsibility towards our clients...tamasha nahi bana sakte...it is my responsibility as a lawyer to not disclose anything to everyone...being a lawyer it is my moral commitment to not disclose any fact".

Pracha also highlighted protection under Section 126 of the Evidence Act pertaining to advocate-client privilege, however, SPP Prasad argued that Section 93 of CrPC, regarding the issuance of a Search Warrant and Evidence Act operates separately and cannot be intermixed.

After hearing both the sides, the court reserved the orders on the case for March 25. However, the court had earlier reserved the order for March 22 after hearing the arguments from both sides but Advocate Pracha later intimated the court with regard to certain additional arguments that he wanted to make on his behalf.

The Special Cell earlier this month conducted a second raid at Pracha's Nizamuddin office in connection with a case registered against him where he has been accused of tutoring a witness in a Delhi riots case. He later moved a court calling the raid as "illegal" and "unjustified".