HC imposes fine on lawyer for false complaint against couple

The Madras High Court today imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on an advocate from Tirupur for filing a false complaint in a lower court against a couple to whom he had given his daughter up in adoption over a decade ago.
Justice G Chockalingam of the Madurai bench of the high court imposed the fine on the advocate while also quashing his complaint in the magisterial court against the couple from Alangulam of the district.
The bench passed the order while allowing the couple's petition to quash the compliant filed against them at the judicial magistrate's court.
The judge in his order said the advocate had lodged the private complaint with an ulterior motive of extracting money from the childless couple whom he knew.

Without opposing the documents registered in the sub- registrar office for adoption, the lawyer had given the complaint.
"Hence, the proceedings in the judicial magistrate court is quashed and the advocate is directed to pay Rs 20,000 as cost to the petitioner's adopted daughter before April 16, failing which the court will initiate action against the advocate," the judge said.

The lawyer had in 2011 filed a Habeas Corpus petition in the high court, stating that his daughter was in illegal custody of the petitioners, but the same was dismissed.
When the matter came up, the judge observed that the lawyer had participated in the adoption ceremony of the girl Tahaseen Syeda in 2002, as seen in photographs of the ceremony.

The adoption had been done in the presence of the elders and the lawyer had also given his thumb impression along with that of his wife on the registered adoption deed, the judge said.
The petitioners submitted that they had not breached the trust nor threatened the lawyer in any manner and sought to quash the complaint proceedings.