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Civil
Dispute or Criminal Offence?
Subsequent
to our iCe Hotline dated October 15, 2005 which was sourced from
a news article in The Hindu, the daily newspaper has published
on October 19, 2005, the stand of the four lawyers accused of
a "criminal breach of trust" by their former law firm in a follow-on
story. The Hindu has quoted the allegation of the accused that
the case by their former law firm was "motivated by personal vendetta".
On
the issue of the court's denial to stay criminal proceedings or
quash the FIR, Alishan Naqvi, one of the accused, clarified in
the report that the counsel for the accused /petitioners did not
press for quashing of the FIR and that their petition was treated
as a petition for the grant of anticipatory bail under Section
438 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1908. The court has allowed
the anticipatory bail applications of all the accused.
Naqvi
is reported as stating that the argument of the petitioners being
employees was only recorded by the court and was not a finding
by the court. The parties to the criminal proceedings have filed
civil proceedings in the Delhi High Court in relation to copyright
and ownership issues. Naqvi is also quoted as saying that the
matter was in the nature of a civil dispute which had been given
the colour of a criminal offence.
The
article of The Hindu referred to above can be accessed at:
Source:
The
Hindu, Delhi edition, October 19, 2005
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