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Conduct preliminary probe before booking offences against advocates, Karnataka HC directs police; cites ‘dangerous trend’

The Karnataka High Court observed that complainants have started to implicate advocates for penal consequences just because they represent the accused. It said this could have a ‘chilling effect’ on the profession.

3 min readBengaluruJan 31, 2026 12:21 PM IST

Justice M Nagaprasanna noted that the trend of implicating advocates cannot be allowed to continue because then there would be complaints against every lawyer.

The Karnataka High Court Friday directed the police to conduct an inquiry before registering a criminal offence against advocates. The direction was given after the court stayed further investigation in a criminal case registered against an advocate on a complaint filed by the husband of a woman whom he represents in matrimonial and civil proceedings.

Justice M Nagaprasanna noted in the order that a very dangerous trend that is now emerging from the hands of complainants is that they have begun to implicate the advocates for penal consequences, alleging highly improbable offences, just because they are representing the accused.

Raising a concern that if this trend is permitted to be continued, it will have a ‘chilling effect’ on the profession as there would be complaints against every advocate, the bench said, “Therefore, the police should, prior to registration of the crime against the advocates, consider an enquiry to be conducted albeit prima facie, with regards to the allegations made by the complainants against the advocates.”

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The court indicated that it would pass a detailed order on the issue at a later stage and posted the matter for hearing on February 19.

Senior Advocate Vivek Subba Reddy, appearing for the petitioner advocate Yaseen Saleh, submitted that the dispute was between the husband and wife, and since Yaseen represented the wife in cases against the husband, he has been named as accused no.10 in the First Information Report (FIR) registered against the wife.

Advocate Yaseen represents the complainant’s wife in court in their divorce proceedings and also in the suit for partition filed by the woman last year. In his petition, Yaseen has stated that on December 26, 2025, he had even addressed a written complaint by email to the KG Halli police station, the East Bengaluru Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), and the Bengaluru Police Commissioner, specifically stating that the woman’s husband was threatening to register false FIRs.

Advocate Yaseen has approached the court seeking to quash the FIR registered against him under various provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including sections 316(2) (criminal breach of trust), 351(2) (criminal Intimidation), and under provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

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The plea said that the FIR registered by the complainant husband is pre-planned and retaliatory in nature, and provisions of the SC/ST Act cannot be invoked as the complainant and the accused (his wife) belong to the same caste. Moreover, roping in an advocate for representing a client is per se illegal and an abuse of process.