Bar Council fund ‘misuse’: Karnataka High Court refuses to quash case

Bengaluru: The high court has refused to quash proceedings against the president and vice president of Karnataka State Bar Council (KSBC) in relation to the alleged misappropriation of funds or corruption in the Bar Council.

. The Vidhana Soudha police had registered the case for cheating, misappropriation, forgery and other offences based on the complaint filed by S Basavaraj, a senior advocate and also member of the KSBC.

. The petition was filed by Vishal Raghu and Vinay Mangalekar, chairman and vice chairman of the KSBC respectively, and Puttegowda, the manager and former member of the KSBC. The complaint pertains to the alleged misappropriation of funds in the conduct of state-level conference of the KSBC held at Mysuru in August 2023.

.Karnataka High Court lays down procedure for courts to examine private complainant under BNSS . The complainant claimed that he filed a complaint with the chairman of the Bar Council with details of irregularities. The chairman had constituted a committee that consisted of the petitioners as members. It is then the complainant approached the police station and an FIR was registered.

. The petitioners claimed that there was no misappropriation and the money was properly spent. It was further submitted that on May 25, 2024, the KSBC had passed a resolution to close the issue to which the complainant was also a signatory.

. On the other hand, the complainant argued that there was no resolution to close the entire issue and said that abundant evidence is available against the petitioners. Justice M Nagaprasanna noted that the issue projected is misappropriation of funds and there are certain communications made by those persons to whom expenditure is shown that they have received the amount.

. “These are to be tested in evidence. By mere marking of a statement before this court particularly in cases of misappropriation, this court would not go into the veracity of the statements made, unless it is investigated in the least. In the light of seriously disputed questions of fact, if this court would interfere at this stage, it would run foul of the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of Kaptan Singh vs State of Uttar Pradesh case wherein high courts were asked not to quash proceedings in the absence of supporting documents which are all of unimpeachable character and sterling quality supported the accused, by exercising power under Section 482 of the CrPC if issues revolve around disputed questions of fact,” the court said.

Bar Council fund ‘misuse’: Karnataka High Court refuses to quash case

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