Delhi / Delhi Bar Council suspends licences of 11 lawyers over fake COVID-19 reports

New Delhi: The Delhi Bar Council (DBC) has suspended licences of 11 lawyers who produced fake COVID positive reports to get financial assistance. Around Rs 19 cr were distributed for the welfare of the lawyers affected by the deadly COVID virus.

The matter came to light during the random scrutiny of COVID reports of 200 applicants who applied for the funds. 

Meanwhile, the bar council has said it will verify all COVID test reports submitted by 4,000 lawyers, according to a report in Times of India.

According to a notice issued by DBC, "It is therefore advised to the beneficiaries that in case any of them has submitted a fake COVID report, he may voluntarily tender an apology in the form of an affidavit along with a demand draft of the amount received,".

Bar council chairman Ramesh Gupta suspended licences of 11 lawyers after taking note of the anomalies in the COVID reports. The council has also constituted a special committee to further probe the COVID report scam. 

On July 9, the disciplinary committee suspended the first licence of a lawyer for allegedly submitting a false COVID positive test report.

In its decision, the committee said that submitting a fabricated COVID report to avail financial assistance amounts to misconduct and cheating.

According to the committee, the opportunity to tender an apology and returning the money would be extended only once. Later, strict action will be taken against lawyers for submitting false COVID reports.