Central Bureau of Investigation Hyderabad Vs. K. Narayana Rao
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Criminal Laws - Criminal Conspiracy
Advocates and Lawyers - Legal Advice - Criminal Conspiracy - Lawyers cannot be held liable for criminal prosecution if their advice causes pecuniary loss to the client, unless they were part of a conspiracy in the fraudulent transaction. The liability against an opining advocate arises only when the lawyer was an active participant in a plan to defraud the client - Held - A lawyer does not tell his client that he shall win the case in all circumstances. Likewise a physician would not assure the patient of full recovery in every case. A surgeon cannot and does not guarantee that the result of surgery would invariably be beneficial, much less to the extent of 100% for the person operated on. The only assurance which such a professional - Judged by this standard, a professional may be held liable for negligence on one of the two findings, viz., either he was not possessed of the requisite skill which he professed to have possessed, or, he did not exercise, with reasonable competence in the given case, the skill which he did possess - A lawyer owes an "unremitting loyalty" to the interests of the client and it is the lawyer's responsibility to act in a manner that would best advance the interest of the client - Merely because his opinion may not be acceptable, he cannot be mulcted with the criminal prosecution, particularly, in the absence of tangible evidence that he associated with other conspirators - At the most, he may be liable for gross negligence or professional misconduct if it is established by acceptable evidence and cannot be charged for the offence under Sections 420 and 109 of IPC along with other conspirators without proper and acceptable link between them.
Criminal Laws - Criminal Conspiracy
Criminal Conspiracy - The ingredients of the offence of criminal conspiracy are that there should be an agreement between the persons who are alleged to conspire and the said agreement should be for doing of an illegal act or for doing, by illegal means, an act which by itself may not be illegal - In other words, an offence of conspiracy cannot be deemed to have been established on mere suspicion and surmises or inference which are not supported by cogent and acceptable evidence.
BENCH :
Advocates For the Appellant(s) :
Topic(s)-Criminal Conspiracy
Important Decision(s)-
- Lawyers cannot be held liable for criminal prosecution if their advice causes pecuniary loss to the client.
- Liability against an opining advocate arises only when the lawyer was an active participant in a plan to defraud the client.