Lautoka lawyer Iqbal Khan’s legal practicing certificate has been suspended for 15 months with immediate effect after he was found guilty of two counts of professional misconduct by the Independent Legal Services Commission.

This means that Iqbal Khan cannot practice law until March 2015.

He also has to pay costs of $1,500 to the commission by the 10th of next month.

Independent Legal Services Commissioner Justice Paul Madigan said as a very senior and experienced counsel, Khan should have known how improper it was of him to appear on national television in January 2009 making allegations against police officers who were about to become respondents in a writ he was filing in court.

Justice Madigan said it was not for Khan, nor for the general public, to judge the actions of the policemen the day before the writ was filed.

The commissioner said the police officer concerned was also being denied his rights to natural justice by these actions of Iqbal Khan.

For the second count, Justice Madigan said that Iqbal Khan must have been acutely aware of the inherent dangers, if not absolute unfairness, in agreeing to act for opposing parties in a joint criminal case.

It was also said that when one of the parties in the case wanted to change his legal representation after finding out that Khan was representing him and the opposing party, Khan’s clerk told him that he did not have to go anywhere else because he could tell lies in court and save both of them.
 
The client refused the course of action and asked for his money.

According to the evidence, the money is yet to be refunded to him.


Story by: Vijay Narayan