PIL asks why son can’t represent father in case

An interesting question of law has been raised before the Gujarat High Court by a Rajpipla resident on Wednesday. Divyesh Doshi has filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) demanding that he should be allowed to appear and argue a case instead of his father. The PIL is likely to come up for hearing soon. Divyesh has also requested the court to allow all citizens to appear in criminal case on behalf of their relatives so as to avoid paying fees to lawyers.

Divyesh filed the PIL as he was not allowed to argue on behalf of his father in capacity of party-in-person in a case filed before the high court. While delivering the order recently, justice BN Mehta said that the rules don’t permit a layman to represent a case of other litigant, who appeared as party-in-person.

According to case details, Divyesh was implicated in 2006 under various charges including Atrocities as he allegedly entered into a scuffle and made a casteist remarks against an officer of the office of the Sub-divisional Magistrate. When he was sent to jail, his father Harihar Joshi bailed him out the next day by depositing Rs5,000 as bail amount. It was seized by the court officials when Divyesh did not remain present before the court.

His father, Harihar Joshi, therefore, filed a case in high court last year seeking back the deposited amount. Joshi did not hire a lawyer and did not appear for the argument. Instead, his son Divyesh appeared before the court but ultimately even he was not allowed to argue.