The Madhya Pradesh High Court recently directed the Bar Association at Indore Bench to issue guidelines advising the lawyers not to file affidavits verifying facts on behalf of their clients..A Bench of Justice Vivek Rusia and Justice Gajendra Singh observed that advocates are not supposed to give affidavit in support of the facts stated in the application moved on behalf of a party.The Court deprecated the practice and ordered the Registry not to accept such applications which are supported by affidavits of the advocates."Let a copy of this order be sent to the Bar Association to issue general guidelines to the lawyers not to give affidavit on behalf of the parties in any matter as they are not supposed to verify the facts of the case," the Court further directed on May 14..The Court was hearing an application seeking suspension of sentence of a convict. The application, supported by an affidavit sworn by the counsel representing him, asserted that he was falsely implicated and had committed no offence. Questioning how the lawyer can file the affidavit to support such claims, the Court said,"These facts cannot be verified by an Advocate as he was not present at the time of incident. Hence, this practice of filing affidavit by the Advocates is deprecated.Accordingly, the Court dismissed the application..Advocate Chandra Prakash Purohit appeared for the appellant.Deputy Advocate General Sudeep Bhargava appeared for the State..[Read Order]
