NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will on Monday hear a suo motu petition addressing the practice of investigative agencies summoning lawyers who advise and represent parties in legal proceedings. A bench comprising Chief Justice B.R. Gavai and Justices K. Vinod Chandran and N.V. Anjaria will preside over the matter. The hearing follows the Enforcement Directorate’s summonses to senior advocates Arvind Datar and Pratap Venugopal. In response, on June 20 the ED instructed its officers not to summon any advocate in money-laundering investigations, unless prior approval is obtained from the agency’s director, citing Section 132 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023. Bar bodies including the Supreme Court Bar Association and the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association condemned those summonses as a “disturbing trend” that undermines the legal profession. They urged the Chief Justice of India to take suo motu cognisance of the issue. Earlier, on June 25, a bench of Justices K.V. Viswanathan and N. Kotiswar Singh observed that allowing probe agencies to directly summon counsel for advising clients “seriously undermines” the profession’s autonomy and poses a “direct threat” to the independence of the administration of justice. That bench framed specific questions on the matter while considering an advocate’s challenge to a police notice in a Gujarat High Court case. For the upcoming hearing, the Court has invited assistance from the Attorney General, the Solicitor General, the chairperson of the Bar Council of India, and the presidents of both the SCBA and SCAORA. The registry has been directed to place all case files before the Chief Justice for appropriate orders.
Source link
