Bar Council of India to debar top lawyer-netas?
NEW DELHI: The Bar Council of India (BCI) on Wednesday issued a notice to MLAs/MLCs/MPs who are practicing as lawyers on the issue of whether they should be debarred from practice while they are serving as legislators.
Advocate Manan Kumar Mishra, the Chairman of the expert committee said, “We have decided to issue notices because in case BCI cancels their enrolments, they cannot state that they are not heard and their rights were violated.”
The notice will be displayed on the BCI website alongside the petitioner’s plea and within a week they have to furnish their replies. The final hearing will take place on January 22.
Some of those who are likely to suffer from the BCI notice are senior advocates Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, KTS Tulsi, P Chidambaram, Vivek Tankha, K Parasaran, Bhupendra Yadav, Meenakshi Lekhi, Satish Mishra and Ashwini Kumar.
BJP leader and SC advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, who had filed a plea to debar such lawyers, said there is a clear conflict of interest as MPs and MLAs have powers to impeach judges. Upadhyay said the MPs and MLAs were paid salaries out of the Consolidated Fund of India and were thus the employees of the State.