Why did you get into this mess?”, the Supreme Court recently said to a woman lawyer for getting into an intimate relationship with her client, a man, who had come to her seeking advice on his divorce case.
A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and R Mahadevan said that the lady, being an advocate, should have maintained professional boundaries with her client, particularly when his divorce had not concluded.
The Bench questioned why the woman, who is 36 years old and a practising advocate, entered into a personal relationship with her own client.
“She is an advocate. She is handling the petitioner’s divorce case. Why did you do that? We don’t expect this,” said Justice Nagarathna. When she insisted, she had only “guided” him and never formally appeared, the Court noted that the distinction made little difference if she acted as his legal advisor while becoming personally involved.
The Court was hearing the man’s petition seeking anticipatory bail in a case filed by the woman, who had been representing him in his matrimonial dispute before they entered a personal relationship. Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Rishi Malhotra submitted that the complainant, a practising lawyer, had filed “four identical cases” of sexual assault against different accused persons and that the Bombay High Court had even ordered an inquiry into her conduct.
Justice Nagarathna took note of the complainant’s professional background and asked how an advocate could cross the line of propriety with a client she was representing in a divorce case.