MADURAI: Observing that the right to legal representation is not a matter of professional favour but a constitutional guarantee, the Madurai Bench of the Madras HC held that no bar association or group of lawyers has the authority to dictate who may or may not be defended before a court of law.
Justice B Pugalendhi made the observations on a batch of four petitions, which made a series of allegations against members of Nagercoil Bar Association such as that of boycott, non-representation and criminal intimidation.
In two of the petitions, the petitioners/accused had sought transfer of their trial to some other district by alleging the Nagercoil Bar Association members made a unanimous decision not to represent them in the two cases as the complainants were advocates, the judge noted. In the remaining two petitions, the accused woman alleged trespass and criminal intimidation by advocates and sought police protection along with a direction to quash the criminal case registered against her.
The judge observed, “The repeated emergence of allegations of this nature indicates a disturbing pattern of professional indiscipline which threatens to diminish the Bar’s standing as an integral component of the judicial process.”
The law does not recognise collective boycotts, informal understandings, or social embargoes on appearance for any accused person, he noted, adding the Advocates Act, 1961, and Bar Council of India Rules also impose a solemn duty upon advocates not to refuse representation without special circumstances.
“The Bar is not a trade union; it is an institution of constitutional significance. Any attempt to convert it into a pressure group that dictates who may or may not be represented before a court of law is nothing short of contempt for the rule of law,” he further said.