Ahmedabad: A shocking case has been reported from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, involving a man posing as a judge and running a fake court. Morris Samuel Christian operated this fake court in front of the Ahmedabad Civil Court for five years, during which he issued numerous orders concerning land disputes valued in the billions. Authorities have now arrested Morris Samuel and filed a case against him.
The modus operandi
Morris, a practicing lawyer, targeted people with ongoing land disputes in the city’s civil court, charging them fees to settle their cases. He lured clients to his Gandhinagar office, which was designed to resemble an actual courtroom. In this fake court, Morris listened to arguments from clients and issued orders as if he were a tribunal officer. To lend credibility to his proceedings, he had court employees and lawyers present, making it appear that the operations were legitimate. Over time, he passed orders favouring himself in about 11 cases.
How the fraud was exposed
The fraud was uncovered by Hardik Desai, the Registrar of the City Civil and Sessions Court in Bhadar, Ahmedabad. In 2019, Morris had issued an order in favour of a client regarding government land under the District Collector’s jurisdiction. His client sought to have their name registered in government records for land in the Paldi area, with Morris falsely claiming he had been appointed as a mediator.
Morris then took actions in this fake court and issued an order mandating the collector to register the client’s name in the land documents, attaching the order he fabricated. However, Registrar Hardik Desai eventually found that Morris was neither a mediator nor was the order he issued legitimate. This led to the registrar filing a case against him at the Karanj Police Station.
