TODAY, THE SUPREME COURT observed that allowing investigation agencies to summon lawyers, who advise litigants in a given case, constitutes a direct threat to the independence of the administration of justice.
These observations have been recorded by a Division Bench of Justices K.V. Viswanathan and Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh while staying a summons issued to a Gujarat-based lawyer.
The Bench’s observations have come at a time when Bar Associations across the country have been condemning the action of the Directorate of Enforcement (‘ED’) summoning two senior advocates of the Supreme Court although the summons were later withdrawn by the agency after uproar.
The Bench has framed two issues for comprehensive determination:
(i) When an individual has the association with a case only as a lawyer advising the party, could the Investigating Agency/Prosecuting Agency/Police directly summon the lawyer for questioning?
(ii) Assuming that the Investigating Agency/Prosecuting Agency/Police has 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?
