KOCHI: A forged High Court order! And that too with near perfection. Can't believe it? What's more, the police take action based on the 'order' and the incident remains unnoticed for several days. A fake order in the name of the Kerala High Court regarding the eviction of a shop in Palakkad district was implemented by the Vadakkenchery police on June 12.
The format of the order is the same, but with a different font. The name of the judge written in the fake order is also not according to the style in the original court order format. Considering it a serious offence, the High Court has initiated a probe and asked the Palakkad RDO to produce the document used to evict the shop owner. The High Court Registrar General's office told Express the High Court has taken note of the incident and it is of serious nature.
"We have started an inquiry and are collecting all materials in connection with the incident. We haven't yet decided which agency - police or the High Court Vigilance wing - should probe the incident. The Chief Justice will take a call in this regard," said an officer with the Registrar General Office of the High Court.
Vadakkanchery sub inspector Bobby Mathew said the police haven't yet registered any case and are waiting for the court order to initiate a probe as the matter is pending before the court. "Two months ago two persons, one seemed to be an advocate, approached the additional SI and handed over a court order. The order, claimed to be issued on May 23, 2017, directed the police to provide assistance to evict the person who was running a shop at Puthucode. Following this, the police team assisted them and closed down the shop on June 12. Later, it was learnt it was a forged one. On June 20, the High Court issued an order asking the police to hand over the key to a Pune native, Tabsum of Puthucode, who is the present owner of the shop," said the SI.
The single judge of the court noticed the forgery when Tabsum, now staying at Puthucode, approached the court challenging the closure of her shop. She submitted, when asked the reason for the closure of the shop, the SI informed her it was based on a court order. The copy of the order was communicated to the Palakkad Revenue Divisional Officer and the sub registrar officer, Vadakkanchery.
Tabsum's counsel Johnson Varikkappallil said, "We have obtained the order, which was used to close down the shop, through the RTI. It was issued in a writ petition (WP (C) no 16950 of 2017) filed by Badarunnisa, mother-in-law of Tabsum. When Tabsum and her counsel inquired about the order, they found there was no such judgment.
Original 'v' fake
The original judgment was a single-page one asking the authorities concerned to consider a complaint filed by Badar- unnisa, after hearing the respondents. The forged order, running into two pages, directs the Vadakkanchery SRO to cancel the assignment deed of the land and to evict the person running the shop. Both the judgments bear the same date - May 23, 2017.