Reported by Anjaya Anparthi in Timesofindia.indiatimes.com on Aug 29, 2012
Petitioner serves legal notice to own advocate - The Times of India

NAGPUR: In a rare instance, a petitioner has served a legal notice to its own advocate alleging that a writ petition was withdrawn without consent. However, the advocate has refuted the allegations. Now, both have decided to battle it out in the High Court.

The petitioner is a registered association formed by property holders of Saptashrungi Layout, situated in Sonegaon, in the name of Saptashrungi Vihar Owners' Welfare Association. The general secretary of the association TH Naidu told TOI that the legal notice was served on advocate Rajnish Vyas on August 6. Vyas was pleading the association's writ petition no. 5594/2010 filed against the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC).

"Vyas withdrew the petition without permission from the association. We were shocked to learn about it," said Naidu.

The association was fighting a long battle with the NMC for not taking public space of the layout into its possession. "Several violations too have taken place. The plot owners are deprived of open space. Therefore, we decided to go to court," he said.

Naidu, in the legal notice, said that advocate also did not place several records and points before the high court despite it being provided to him. "We had a strong case as records prove that the open space was not according to norms. The association had obtained various types of documents with Right to Information (RTI) Act to substantiate the case. We have sought a reply from Vyas."

Vyas told TOI that he has already replied to the notice. "I have done an honest job and placed all points before the court. The petition was withdrawn with the oral consent of Naidu who was present at that hearing," said Vyas, adding he is ready for "a court battle".

The advocate also claimed that Naidu refused to submit the resolution to withdraw petition passed by the Association.

Naidu countered by saying there was never any "oral consent". "I was sitting in the back row during the hearing and did not realize when Vyas withdrew the petition," he said.