Lawyers scrap over representing

MUMBAI: Ganesh Sovani, counsel for Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, has complained to the superintendent of the Byculla jail that another lawyer, Naveen Chomal, has met her in the jail without his (Sovani's) consent. But the Sadhvi herself might have created the piquant situation for her lawyers by signing a vakalatnama for Chomal last Saturday even though Sovani appeared for her in the Chief Judicial Magistrate's court at Nashik on 3 November.
"I have given him no instruction to meet her or even asked for his assistance,'' Sovani said.
Sovani and senior criminal lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani are holding the Sadhvi's original vakalatnamas since 2 November. They have appointed Umesh Walzade in Nashik as a co-advocate on record. Sovani and Walzade appeared for her on 3 November. But, on 8 November, Chomal claimed to have got another vakalatnama of the Sadhvi.
Sovani sought to meet the Sadhvi this Friday in the jail for instructions. He was allowed 20 minutes, according to the jail manual, but Chomal was already there and was meeting the Sadhvi for the third time.
Chomal, in fact, had tried to argue in the Nashik court on behalf of the Sashvi's sister, Pratibha Jha, on 11 November when the latter applied to meet her sister in jail. But Walzade kept him out of it, telling the court that he and Sovani were holding the vakalatnamas.
Pratibha tried to meet her sister in the Byculla prison on 7 November itself but did not succeed. The very next day, however, Chomal met up with the Sadhvi and got her signatures on a vakalatnama. Chomal confirmed this to TOI. TOI asked him how he could have done this without consulting Sovani and Jethmalani. "We have to work as a team. They are mature people. They will understand,'' he replied.
"I have high regards for Sovani. And I don't know if such complaints (to the jail authorities) are tenable. I went to the jail on Friday for following up of the instructions given to me earlier,'' he said.
But the Sashvi's sister, Pratibha, told TOI that she met her sister this week and had told her not to entertain Chomal.
pranati.mehra@timesgroup.com