Woman Lawyer Who Practised With Fake Degree, Flees

There are series that I have watched and not completed, and one of them is Suits. While watching this show about corporate lawyers, I used to honestly think that this all of this was too far fetched. I know scams are real but being a fake lawyer? That is taking it a bit too far. But I guess not. I realized that this can happen and not just in the US but also in India. Don’t believe it? Recently, there was a woman ‘lawyer’ who practiced law for the last two and a half years with a fake degree.

Cessy Xavier, a woman lawyer who was practicing law in the Alappuzha Court for the last two and a half years by presenting fake certificates, went to the Judicial Magistrate Court on Thursday to surrender. But after she sensed the arrival of Alappuzha North police, she fled the premises.

The 27-year-old woman lawyer, a native of Ramankari in Kuttanad, had fled from the grounds of the Judicial Magistrate Court after she came to know that Alappuzha North police had filed a case against her. They had booked her under Sections 417 and 419 of IPC, which were non-bailable. 

According to the Alappuzha North police, the lawyer, Cessy Xavier, escaped through the backdoors with the help of some of the other advocates present on the premises. The case was registered based on the Alappuzha Bar Association, who complained that from her qualifications to her roll number of the Kerala Bar Council was fake.

According to the Alappuzha North police, the Alappuzha Bar Association received an anonymous letter stating that Cessy Xavier, a woman lawyer’s documents and certificates were fake. After which the Association cross-checked the roll number and realized that the roll number of the Kerala Bar Council that was submitted by Cessy Xavier, belonged to someone else. They even found out that the lawyer had not even registered with the council. 

Upon further investigation, it was revealed that the woman lawyer had contested for the Bar Association election. She had also won the election by a good margin. After being elected, the lawyer was also given charge of the library of the Association by the office people. The complaint by the Association leaders also stated that she had taken numerous rare documents from the library. Since she hasn’t submitted those documents back, the police have also filed a case against the lawyer for theft.

The fact that she was continuing to practice as a lawyer for more than two years, highlights the loopholes in our judicial system. It is so scary to know that someone can randomly get their hands on private documents. There needs to be a much more intricate method for the entire process of becoming a lawyer and practicing law. So that such incidents do not happen again.