CHENNAI: Accepting the challenge by nearly 800 advocates, the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry (BCTN&P) has informed the agitating lawyers to follow the ‘routine’ procedure to get their licence to practice suspended.
A team of advocates led by senior advocate R Vaigai had submitted a representation to the Tamil Nadu Bar council on July 27. It was claimed to have been signed by about 800 advocates to suspend them from practice.
The representation had stated that expressing their solidarity with the ongoing peaceful protests against the draconian rules of conduct, illegally framed by the Madras High Court and after the illegal suspension of 126 advocates State-wide, they, the members of the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry Bar, request the Bar Council to suspend them from practice untill the said rules were revoked.
The representation also demanded the revocation of the orders suspending 126 advocates on July 24 and the 40 lawyers on various occasions in the past. The five advocates belonging to the GT Court Bar Association should also be released forthwith, the representation added.
The Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry chairman D Selvam, who had flown to New Delhi last week to urge Bar Council of India chairman Manan Kumar Mishra to rescind the orders suspending 126 advocates, told Express on Sunday that Mishra had advised him to ensure first that agitations by the advocates were withdrawn. The plea for revocation of the suspension orders would be considered once the advocates gave up their agitation, Mishra was said to have told Selvam.
Selvam also claimed that the July 27 representation appears to be fake. The particulars given in the representation, such as name, initials, roll numbers and signatures, do not match the official records. About 500 names mentioned in the representation were cross checked so far and it was found that over 120 did not match the records.
“If the advocates are really interested in getting their practice suspended, let them follow the routine procedure. The procedure mandates furnishing of individual application and surrender of the original enrollment certificate, ID card and other related documents. The applications will be placed before the general council, which will then take a decision,” Selvam said and added that the representation appears to be bogus and a ‘fraud’ played on the advocates. No action could be taken on the collective representation containing false particulars, he added.
The lawyer fraternity and the judges have been at loggerheads ever since the Madras High Court amended the conduct rules and took upon itself the administration of severe penalties on advocates, who flouted the norms and took part in protests and agitations against the judges of the court.