Is one in every three lawyers practicing in India fake?

• In Kolkata this January, a woman and her estranged husband allegedly paid nearly Rs 8 lakh to people who claimed they could resolve their matrimonial dispute through legal intervention.

The woman was introduced to an alleged “High Court advocate”, taken to an office on Vivekananda Road, and persuaded to pay for criminal and civil cases. She later found that no court applications had been filed. The advocate she was introduced to was fake.
• A few months earlier, another Kolkata resident accused a fake High Court lawyer of cheating her of more than Rs 3 lakh. The allegation was not merely that money had been taken.

The accused was said to have forged court orders, notices and judges’ signatures, staged mock virtual court sessions and invoked the Calcutta High Court registrar’s name to appear legitimate.