S. RAMACHANDRA RAO Vs. S. NAGABHUSHANA RAO

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) These appeals are directed against the common order dtd. 28/6/2019 in Civil Revision Petition Nos. 758, 759, 760 and 761 of 2019, as passed by the High Court of Andhra Pradesh at Amaravathi, whereby the High Court has not approved the similar orders dtd. 7/2/2019, as passed by the Court of III Additional Senior Civil Judge at Vijayawada in four separate civil proceedings between the same contesting parties.

(3.) Put in a nutshell, the issue involved in the matter is concerning the capacity in which the plaintiff-appellants wife, who is the General Power of Attorney[GPA, for short] holder of the appellant and is also an enrolled advocate, could appear and act on his behalf in the said civil proceedings. Even before passing of the orders which form the subject-matter of present appeals, this issue had led to various orders by the Trial Court at different stages of proceedings as also to a couple of orders by the High Court in challenge to the orders so passed by the Trial Court. Therein, the Trial Court and the High Court essentially held that merely for the wife of the appellant being an advocate, there was no prohibition in law for her to act on behalf of her husband as a GPA holder but, it was made clear that she would appear in-person as a power agent of her husband and not in her professional capacity as an advocate. The same proposition was iterated by the Trial Court in its orders dtd. 7/2/2019 in these very proceedings, while rejecting the objection against examination of the witnesses by the wife of the appellant in her capacity as GPA holder. However, in the impugned order dtd. 28/6/2019, the High Court has held that in view of a Division Bench decision of the same High Court, it was not permissible for a GPA holder to participate in the proceedings and, therefore, while disapproving the orders under challenge, the wife of the appellant has been given liberty to act as an advocate on behalf of her husband, the plaintiff, in these cases.