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Jitender @ Kalla v. State (Govt.) of NCT of Delhi

Criminal Appeal · 2025 INSC 249Decided 20 Feb 2025
Criminal Appeal arising out of SLP (Crl.) No. 4299 of 2024 (with Writ Petition (Crl.) No. 418 of 2024)
Justice Abhay S. Oka · Justice Augustine George Masih

Background

The appellant, who was earlier convicted of murder and attempted murder and sentenced to 30 years' rigorous imprisonment without remission (a sentence the Supreme Court itself had restored in 2019), filed a Special Leave Petition challenging a Delhi High Court order that actually concerned premature release of an unrelated life-convict named Rani, to whose case he was not even a party. In filing this SLP, the appellant's lawyers did not disclose his real, harsher sentence, misleadingly presenting it as an ordinary life sentence, prompting the Court to examine the conduct of the advocate-on-record who filed the petition and the senior advocate who argued it.

Decision Breakdown

The Court found that the senior advocate involved had, across several matters, made false or suppressed material facts to the Court and had tendered an unconditional apology, while the advocate-on-record had essentially "lent his name" to a petition without adequately verifying its contents: conduct the Court held breaches the special, higher standard of responsibility that advocates-on-record owe under the Supreme Court's own rules. The Court declined to formally invoke disciplinary Rule 10 against the advocate-on-record given his apology and acknowledgment of the lesson learned, but referred the question of whether to designate the senior advocate further, and whether the disciplinary framework itself needs reconsideration, to the Chief Justice of India for examination by an appropriately constituted bench. On the underlying case, no relief was granted to the appellant on the merits of premature release, and his remedies were left open.

Lesson Learnt

Advocates-on-record before the Supreme Court carry a personal, non-delegable duty to verify facts and cannot simply "lend their name" to petitions drafted by others, suppressing or misstating facts to the Court, even through a junior colleague's draft, is professional misconduct with serious consequences.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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