Echoing the Supreme Court’s view that legal profession has fallen to new depths, the Bar Council of India (BCI) took an “extraordinary” measure by suspending 15 advocates who allegedly indulged in the Madras High Court violence.
They were suspended without being given an opportunity to be heard first. But the BCI justified that the law allowed it to take extraordinary measures in exceptional cases when the health of the legal profession was at stake. These advocates have also been debarred from practising before any court or authority pending a disciplinary probe against them for “gross professional misconduct.”
The BCI directed the Tamil Nadu State Bar Council to conclude the disciplinary proceedings against them in a month.
The 15 advocates were zeroed in on the basis of communications from the BCI, by the Chairman of the Tamil Nadu Bar Council and the Registrar General of the Madras High Court. The Registrar General’s list had the names of two law college students who allegedly participated in the violence, the seven-page September-22 order authored by BCI Chairman and senior advocate Manan Kumar Mishra noted.
