Summoning lawyers for legal advice threat to their autonomy: Supreme Court
The Supreme Court has raised concern over agencies summoning lawyers for advice given to clients, calling it a threat to legal autonomy and judicial independence
 "Summoning lawyers for legal advice threat to their autonomy: Supreme Court")
The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that summoning legal professionals by probe agencies to provide client information or advice they give to clients is “a threat to autonomy of the legal profession”.
It comes just a few days after two senior advocates of the Supreme Court were summoned by the Enforcement Directorate over legal advice given by them to a client. After protest by the legal community, the summons were eventually withdrawn.
“Permitting investigating agencies/police to directly summon defence counsel/advocates who advise parties in a given case would seriously undermine autonomy of legal profession and would even constitute a direct threat to independence of administration of justice,” a division bench of the top court said.
The petitioner in the case argued that permitting investigating agencies and police to summon advocates who are engaged as counsels in the case or who have advised parties infringe upon rights of advocates, apart from seriously threatening autonomy of legal profession.
The bench of Justices KV Viswanathan and N Kotiswar Singh also posed two questions and placed the matter before Chief Justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai for appropriate directions.
The court also wondered that if an individual was associated with a case not just as a lawyer but something, could they be summoned directly by the investigating agency or was there a need for judicial oversight.
The court has also sought the assistance of Attorney General for India R Venkataramani, Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, Bar Council of India Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra, SCBA President Vikas Singh and SCAORA President Vipin Nair in the matter.