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Showing contexts for: Litigation Privilege in Reliance Industries Limited vs Securities And Exchange Board Of India on 5 August, 2022Matching Fragments
i. That the challenge to the maintainability of the present appeal is misconceived. He stated that the interim application filed for seeking documents was argued at length before the High Court, which was ultimately not considered.
ii. That the SEBI, being a regulator, has a duty to disclose documents pursuant to Article 21. This constitutional mandate has been accepted by this Court and has been applied to SEBI in T. Takano v. Securities and Exchange Board of India, 2022 SCC Online SC 210 iii. SEBI cannot claim litigation privilege as the proceedings are not adversarial in nature.
iv. That the selective disclosure of excerpts of the opinion by Justice (Retd.) B.N. Srikrishna, amounted to cherry picking by SEBI which cannot be allowed. The accused is entitled to the complete document to ensure a fair trial.
v. That the action of SEBI of disclosing excerpts of the report clearly amounts to waiver of litigation privilege claimed by SEBI.
v. The documents are being sought at a premature stage. If cognizance is taken by the trial Court, the accused would be entitled for the documents in terms of Section 207 of CrPC. Any attempt to seek documents beyond the scope of Section 207 CrPC cannot be accepted.
vi. The opinion of the Retd. Judge and the report of the Chartered Accountant are clearly covered as part of litigation privilege in terms of the Indian Evidence Act. Such opinions cannot be a matter of production by a party.
In England, the Legal professional privilege is often classified under two subheadings: legal advice privilege and litigation privilege. Legal advice privilege comprises of communications between a client and his legal adviser, and is available when proceedings are in existence or contemplated. Litigation privilege on the other hand, covers a wider class of communications, such as those between the legal adviser and potential witnesses.
50. Coming to legal advice privilege in England, the House of Lords through Justice Carswell in Three Rivers District Council and others (Respondents) v. Governor and Company of the Bank of England (Appellants), [2004] UKHL 48, has summarized the law as under: