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Rehana Khan v. Rizwan Siddhiquee

Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 907Decided 21 Aug 2026
Civil Appeal No. 12256 of 2025, with Transferred Case (Civil) No. 30 of 2026 and Civil Appeal No. 7959 of 2026
Justice Vikram Nath · Justice Sandeep Mehta · Justice Vijay Bishnoi

Background

A client (Rehana Khan) had engaged an advocate (Rizwan Siddhiquee) in 2013-14, sharing confidential and sensitive personal information with him, including allegations against a police official. After the relationship soured and she filed a police complaint naming the police official (and referencing the advocate), the advocate gave a television interview in which he discussed her case, played recorded conversations between them, and disputed her allegations. The Bar Council of India's disciplinary committee found professional misconduct and suspended him for two years with fines; both the client (seeking a harsher penalty) and the advocate (denying any wrongdoing) appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found neither party came to the case with "clean hands", both had been less than candid and had themselves fuelled a media spectacle, but held that the core finding of misconduct against the advocate was solid: he had given a television interview disclosing confidential client communications and recorded conversations, which no justification (including being publicly accused himself) could excuse, since an advocate's duty of confidentiality does not end just because a client later becomes an adversary. The Court dismissed the advocate's challenge to his punishment, but also refused the client's request to increase it, since she too had withheld relevant facts, including that the police official she originally accused was discharged by a trial court in 2015 without her ever challenging it; it imposed Rs. 5 lakh costs on each side for wasting years of court time.

Lesson Learnt

A lawyer's duty of confidentiality to a client survives even after the relationship turns adversarial, and disclosing a former client's private communications to the media, even to defend oneself against accusations, is professional misconduct that courts will not excuse, regardless of how the underlying dispute unfolded.

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

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