SRA accuses Khan of 'procedural game-playing'

The Solicitors Regulation Authority and Soophia Khan are at loggerheads over her bid to return to the solicitors’ profession.

Khan, who was struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal in August, is hoping to persuade the tribunal today to grant a re-hearing. However, Khan and the SRA disagree over the procedural route she is taking.

Richard Wilkinson, for Khan, told the tribunal this morning that Khan’s application cannot be an abuse of process because her application for a re-hearing that was previously refused by the tribunal was premature and is now being made at the appropriate time in the proceedings.

The tribunal heard that shortly before the August hearing began, Khan applied to strike out parts of the case against her and sought an adjournment of the hearing scheduled in August. Her application was determined in her absence on 1 August and the SDT declined to adjourn the hearing.

Khan briefly attended days four and five of the August hearing after being contacted by the SDT. However, Wilkinson said: ‘Ms Khan was not present at all when the hearing commenced. She was not present for any part at all of the proceedings during which the tribunal considered the merits of the allegations being made against her. Nor was she present before these allegations were determined and the SDT’s decision was announced.’

Rupert Allen, for the SRA, insisted Khan’s application was an abuse of process.

He said: ‘There is nothing new about the second application that was not in the first application. It is straightforward re-litigation of points raised on 4 August. It is an abuse of process to make the same application having lost to make it on the same grounds a few weeks later.’

Khan lodged an appeal, which was the ‘appropriate course procedurally’, Allen said, before describing Khan’s application for a rehearing as ‘quite obviously a case of procedural game-playing.’

The hearing continues.