Cuttack: Orissa High Court has ruled that a lawyer cannot be made responsible for the opinion given by him and made liable for any criminal prosecution.

The court said that if any lawyer violated ethics, he was certainly liable not only for professional misconduct but also for professional negligence.

"But criminal case cannot be thought of unless he is found to have criminal intention to commit any crime," the single-judge bench of Justice D.P. Choudhury ruled while considering a case in which the CID-Crime Branch had initiated criminal proceedings against a lawyer.

According to case records, a private firm had availed cash credit facility of Rs 9.5 lakh from a Bank of Baroda branch in Cuttack city against creation of equitable mortgage of landed property.

Documents presented showed that the landed property was in the name of the proprietor of the firm as guarantor. The bank had extended the credit facility after seeking legal opinion from an advocate in 2006.

In 2008, the bank came to know that the mortgaged land stood in the name of another person and not in the name of the guarantor and lodged an FIR with the CID-Crime Branch.

While the investigation was running implicating the lawyer, he challenged the initiation of the criminal proceeding in the high court in 2009, seeking damages of Rs 50 lakh.

The case had since languished till it was disposed of on April 4 with the high court quashing the criminal proceeding against the lawyer.

Justice Choudhury observed: "When the petitioner gave his opinion as lawyer for the bank by verifying document, the opinion of the petitioner cannot be faulted with for any departure in the field. If the opinion of the lawyer is scrutinised like in this case, I am afraid no legal person can vouch to give his opinion on the matter referred to."