Bar council suspends advocate’s licence over molestation charge

Patna: The Bar Council of India (BCI) has suspended the licence of advocate Niranjan Kumar of the Patna High Court for allegedly committed sexual harassment of his lady intern at his own workplace on December 23.A resolution to this effect was passed on January 8 by the BCI general meeting which, after being received on Tuesday evening, was adopted by the Bihar State Bar Council (BSBC) and executed forthwith the same day. BSBC chairman Ramakant Sharma said the licence of Niranjan granted in 2011 is suspended from Tuesday. On January 6, the vice-chancellor (VC) of Chanakya National Law University and Justice (retd) Mridula Mishra of the Patna High Court had emailed the BCI chairman and secretary, intimating thereby about the incident of sexual harassment, molestation and attempt to rape allegedly committed by Niranjan with a lady intern, who is pursuing legal studies from the said university. The accused lawyer was also booked by Shastri Nagar police in the case (914/2022) registered under Sections 341, 342(wrongful restraint and confinement), 354 (assault on woman for outraging her modesty), 354-A ( sexual harassment), 354-B(assaulting woman for disrobing her) and 509 (words and gesture to insult modesty of a woman) of IPC.Requesting for stern action to be taken against the accused lawyer, the VC expressed apprehensions that the lady students of her university will feel helpless in completing their internship, a mandatory part of law syllabus, amidst prevailing fear and agony. Taking serious note of this incident, the BCI in its general meeting viewed it as “gross professional and other misconduct, unbecoming of an advocate”. The council also summoned the reports of the fact-finding committee (FFC) and communicated its resolution on Tuesday “for its immediate execution (implementation) without any delay. This matter will be taken up for further decision of BCI after going through the FFC report. On Tuesday morning, the high court had taken cognizance of the resolution passed by 112 women lawyers of the court and directed to send the notice upon him to respond over the matter within a week.