S. R. Das, J. - (1.) This Rule was issued by this Court under O. 4 R. 30 of the Rules of this Court after receipt of a report from the Bombay High Court that High Court had, by its order made on 13-10-1955 in Civil Appln. No. 1506 of 1955, suspended the respondent from practice as an Advocate of that High Court for a period of one year from the date of the said order. By the Rule the respondent has been required to show cause why, in view of the matter specified in the judgment and order of the Bombay High Court referred to above, appropriate action, disciplinary or otherwise, should not be taken against him by this Court.
(2.) The respondent is an Advocate of some standing in the Bombay High Court and as such was also enrolled as an Advocate of this Court. It appears that in the earlier part of the year 1953 the Advocate was prosecuted before Mr. Sonavane, one of the Presidency Magistrate at Bombay, on a charge of having committed an offence under the Bombay Prohibition Act. The trial lasted from July 1953 to November, 1953. On 18-11-1953 the Magistrate convicted the Advocate of the offence with which he was charged and sentenced him to regorous imprisonment for one month and to a fine of Rs. 201 and to regorous imprisonment of four weeks in default of payment of the fine. The Advocate went up on appeal to the High Court. The High Court on 24-2-1954 upheld the conviction but altered the sentence to one of fine of Rs. 1,000 only.
(3.) In the meantime, on 25-11-1953, the trial Magistrate, Mr. Sonavane, made a report to the Registrar (App Side) of the Bombay High Court as to the conduct of the Advocate who appeared in person as the accused before him. On a perusal of that report the Hon'ble the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court constituted a Tribunal consisting of three members of the Bar Council to enquire into the conduct of the Advocate. The Tribunal issued a summons against the Advocate intimating that it would enquire into his conduct as disclosed in: (a) the report dated 25-11-1953 of Shri T. A. Sonavane, B. A., L.L.B., Presidency Magistrate, 18th Court Girgaum, Bombay, to the Registrar, High Court, Appellate Side, Bombay regarding Case No. 593/P of 1953 tried by him, and (b) the judgment recorded by the High Court of Judicature at Bombay in Criminal Appeal No. 1532 of 1953 (with Criminal Appeal No. 1564 of 1953) upholding the Judgment and order of conviction passed against him by the aforesaid learned magistrate in the aforesaid case.;