Legal Advice

Advocate has withdrawn the writ petition without consent of petitioner

Question: I am working as headmaster of the school. My advocate has withdrawn the writ petition without consent of petitioner i.e. me. I joined the school in April 2013. Well Before my joining, in November 2012 ,an agreement had been made by the then headmaster for construction of a Kasturba building run under Bihar education project of sarv shiksha abhiyan.  But departmental engineers made no effort to get the work started, no lay-out was done by them. When I joined the school ,the departmental engineers and the officers began to put pressure on me to start the work. Lay-out was done in june 2013. In the process, it was found that the available land was not sufficient enough to carry on construction work.  The agreement was forced to be done without the land having been measured.It was a grave mistake on part of the engineers.In that situation, a new site adjacent to the previous site was searched. It was a vast and big ditch. The then executive engineer changed the design spread foundation was changed to pile foundation, plain structure was changed to RCC structure.  Estimate was also changed.design and estimate was finalised on 17-08-2013. No fresh agreement was executed with me. Before it on 11-08-2013, Bihar government issued a new schedule of rates effective from 11-08-2013. But the estimate was prepared on the basis of rates prevailing in 2011. Between 2011 to 2013, the prices of materials and labour increased drastically.  I had to suffer huge losses on account of high increases in prices of materials and labour. It was all due to the fault of engineers on account of which the work started very late.I was not a bit responsible.  When measurement book was prepared,it was found that many works had not been incorporated despite the fact that they were in the design and the work was actually done. That again amounted to a huge loss.  I preferred a writ petition in 2018 in Patna high court to direct the department to book the MB on the basis of 2013 schedule of rates which prevailed at the time of making the estimate and incorporate all the items which were left in measurement.  But the sad fact is that after a lapse of four years in july 2022, my advocate all of sudden withdrew my case without my consent. When I asked the reason, he gave a quite vague explanation. He must have taken my consent.  I am sadly surprised how he can withdraw my case without my consent. Please guide me what I can do in that situation. I can not leave out such a huge loss. I am determined to fight my case till the last remedy available.

Advise

The advocate cannot act in contrary to the interest of his client. If the client has not given his consent to withdraw his writ petition, the advocate cannot withdraw the writ petition on behalf of the petitioner. 

In this situation you should move a petition in the High Court for restore the writ petition and initiation of an inquiry against the advocate for his misconduct. This act i.e. withdrawal of writ petition without receiving consent or instruction of the petitioner, comes under the purview of misconduct as provided in the Advocates Act 1961.

Shivendra Pratap Singh

Advocate

High Court Lucknow

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