New Delhi, July 21 (IANS) The Supreme Court is slated to hear on Monday the suo moto case registered in the wake of the practice of probe agencies issuing summons to legal professionals for rendering their opinion to clients or for representing them before judicial forums.

As per the causelist published on the website of the apex court, a Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) B.R. Gavai and Justices K. Vinod Chandran and N.V. Anjaria will take up the suo moto case (initiated on its own motion) titled “In Re: Summoning Advocates Who Give Legal Opinion Or Represent Parties During Investigation Of Cases And Related Issues” for hearing on July 20.

Earlier, a Bench of Justices K.V. Viswanathan and N.K. Singh concurred with the contention that permitting the investigating agencies to summon advocates who are engaged in a case or who have advised parties not only impinged upon the rights of the advocates but also seriously threatened the autonomy of the legal profession.

The Justice Viswanathan-led Bench was dealing with a plea of an advocate challenging the summons issued to him by the Gujarat Police, though he was neither an accused nor a material witness to the facts of the FIR or the agreement in dispute.

Granting interim relief to the petitioner-advocate, the apex court had ordered that no coercive action would be taken against him in furtherance of the summons issued by the Assistant Police Commissioner.

It also framed two questions for a detailed consideration and directed that the matter be placed for further directions before the Chief Justice of India (CJI).

First, when an individual has an association with a case only as a lawyer advising the party, could the prosecuting agency directly summon the lawyer for questioning? And second, assuming that the police have a case that the role of the individual is not merely as a lawyer but something more, even then, should they be directly permitted to summon or should judicial oversight be prescribed for those exceptional criterion of cases.

Stressing that the issue required redressal on a comprehensive basis, it had called for the assistance of Attorney General of India R. Venkataramani, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, the Bar Council of India, Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and Supreme Court Advocate-on-Record Association in the matter.

Summons were issued by the ED to senior advocates Arvind Datar and Pratap Venugopal, but were subsequently withdrawn by the federal anti-money laundering agency.

In a letter addressed to CJI B.R. Gavai, SCAORA (Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association) President Vipin Nair had urged the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognisance of the matter and examine the legality and propriety of such summons issued to legal professionals for opinions rendered in good faith.

The Bar body requested the top court to safeguard the constitutional and professional protections afforded to advocates and lay down appropriate guidelines to prevent any further erosion of the lawyer-client privilege.

–IANS

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