Bombay High Court: G.S. Patel, J., on 15-02-2020 noted a complaint filed by two Advocates – Umesh Vasant Mohite and Hetal Arvind Pandya wherein it was stated by the Advocates that,
An order has been passed by in the name of Justice G.S. Patel on 01-12-2019.
G.S. Patel Justice in the above regard states that,
“The entire document is a forgery and there is no such order. Several reasons for this One, the document purports to be an order in the High Court’s Ordinary Original Civil Jurisdiction ‘In Its Revenue and Property Division’. There is no such Division. It purports to be in a Commercial Succession Petition (L) No. 23520 of 2019. There is no such proceeding and there could be no such proceeding as a “Commercial Succession Petition”. There is no Testamentary Petition with a five-digit lodging number.”
“Entire formatting of the documents, including the fonts, line spacing, etc, is not in the manner in which I make my orders. There is no footer of the date and page number which is my invariable practice for the last several years.”
Further, he adds,
“Document purports to be made on 01-12-2019. That was a Sunday. No such order could have ever been made.”
“Since the offending document uses this very file nape ‘909- CARBPL1501-19-CuDOC’, it necessarily follows that though allegedly dated 1st December 2019, the offending document could have been generated or fabricated only after 23rd December 2019.”
It seems there are glaring indicators of this document being fabricated, forged and got up.
Purpose of this forgery is evident from paragraph 7 because it seeks to create rights in favour of the so-called petitioner.
He further observed that,
Satishchandra Goradia died just 15 days ago. This order was brought to the notice by the learned Advocates, Mr Umesh Vasant Mohite and Advocate Ms Hetal Arvind Pandya by Mr Parth Goradia, grand nephew (Satishchandra’s brother’s son’s son). Parth states that he obtained this document from his father, and that his father, in turn, obtained it from one Mr Ashok Vageriya.”
On enquiring with Chamber staff, it was found that there is no Advocate Ashok Vageriya registered with an Advocate’s code in this Court’s System or records, nor is there a registered Clerk of any such person.
Justice Patel has asked the Registrar (Legal & Research) to take immediately:
- Take appropriate proceedings including under Section 340(3)(a) and Section 195 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973
- Write to Indian Bank and Bank of Baroda at their respective Head Offices mentioning the two term deposits.
- Summon before himself Mr Ashok Vageriya and Mr Parth Goradia for an explanation as to this document.
Finally, Justice Patel highlighted that,
“…Such an order could never have been passed by me in any Succession Petition because testamentary matters were not even within my sitting assignment in December 2019.”
“There is no manner of doubt that the entire document is not only a forgery but a clumsy one.”
[Testamentary Complaint No. 1 of 2020, 2020 SCC OnLine Bom 279, Order dated 15-02-2020]
