+91 964 334 1948
16 Jul 2025, 01:27 PM
The Supreme Court today issued notice on a public interest litigation seeking a grievance redressal mechanism for breach of advocates' privileges.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta heard the matter and tagged it with the suo motu case initiated in connection with summoning of lawyers by investigation agencies over legal advice given to clients (Ref: In Re : Summoning Advocates Who Give Legal Opinion or Represent Parties During Investigation of Cases and Related Issues).
Briefly put, the petition is filed by a practicing advocate, praying that the Bar Council of India adopt certain rules for the protection of privileges of Advocates, which is one of its "mandated statutory functions" under Section 7(d) of the Advocates Act.
The PIL seeks constitution of a Committee for the purpose of safeguarding advocates' privileges, so that the issues/grievances regarding breach of privilege of Advocates can be effectively examined through a "uniform, accessible and transparent mechanism".
As per averments made in the petition, the petitioner has been pursuing the Advocates (Protection) Bill before the Union Government since 2014, which has been referred to the Law Commission of India. In this regard, it is further stated that in March this year, the petitioner applied to the BCI to adopt draft rules - the Advocates (Protection of Privileges) Rules, 2025 - proposed by him, "which lie within the power" of BCI, but the rules have not been adopted.
The petition further states that it is necessitated in light of incidents that are reported regarding assaults and killing of advocates or their framing in cases.
"Advocates are Officers of the Court and any attack on Advocates that meddles with their duties as Advocates must be looked into by the respective State Bar Council in order to determine whether such an incident should be treated as an assault on the privileges of an Advocate."
It urges that adoption of uniform rules for protecting advocates' privileges would make the process of seeking protection and granting thereof by the concerned State Bar Council moving the appropriate Court more streamlined and systematic.
The petition is filed through AoR Ganu Suvarna Siddhanath.
Case Title: AADITYA GORE Versus UNION OF INDIA AND ORS., W.P.(C) No. 632/2025