Lawfully yours: By Retd Justice K Chandru

Provisions of Consumer Protection Act don’t apply on lawyers

I wanted to file a case against my builder for which I approached a lawyer. After collecting his fees and court fee in advance the lawyer kept on dragging his feet on one pretext or another. He also promised that he could get an out-ofcourt settlement in my favour. With nothing happening after three months, I asked him to re- turn my money and documents which he refuses to. I now learnt that he was acting on behalf of the builder and was taking me for a ride by misleading and creating further hurdles for me. Can an advocate be held liable for these charges? Do advocates come under the ambit of the Consumer Protection Act? — Venkiteswaran R, Parandur

The provisions of the Consumer Protection Act will not apply to lawyers. You can approach the Bar Council with a complaint of professional misconduct and seek action against your lawyer. In that complaint, you can ask for the return of your papers, the amount paid and compensation besides punishment for his misconduct. The only drawback is it will not be heard by judges but by his peers who are elected by the very same lawyers. But, nothing can be done about it as they are a privileged few!

We still lag on issues related to gender justice; abortion is one such

The country is celebrating its 75th year of Independence. But its rules with regard to women leave much to be desired for. Even the courts, on abortion rights, have one set of rules for married women and another set for unmarried. We still lack a clear and specific legal framework to deal with the cases where the accused obtains consent for sexual intercourse on the false promise of marriage. Why are our legislative bodies and courts failing to address the feudal mindset that women are nothing but an object of enjoyment? — Sreedevi, Vandalur

When it comes to gender justice, the courts do lag behind. The fault may not be entirely on them. Most of the fault lay on the lawmakers. They have no clarity and the path to be taken. Even the British while ruling here and when drafting the laws formulated them on succession, marriage, guardianship and adoption based on religion and various interpretations on it. Therefore, we are still struggling to have one decent gender-free structure for enacting these laws, except for some occasional progressive amendments. Abortion is one such issue. We are one shade better than some of the advanced countries. But, we have miles to go.