SC says lawyers can’t be summoned unless approved by SP, sets aside ED summons

In a landmark verdict aimed at protecting lawyer-client privilege, the Supreme Court on Friday issued a slew of directions to curb arbitrary summoning of lawyers by probe agencies for rendering advice, and said investigating officers (IOs) cannot summon them in criminal probes unless approved by the superintendent of police.

- TDG NETWORK

A bench of Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran, while deciding a suo motu case titled as ‘IN RE: Summoning Advocates who give legal opinion or represent parties during investigation of cases and related issues’, issued a detailed framework aimed at preventing arbitrary coercion of lawyers by police and other probe agencies.

“The investigating agency/ prosecuting agency/ the police cannot directly summon a lawyer appearing in a case to elicit the details of the case, unless there is something, the IO has knowledge of, which falls under the exceptions, in which case it has to be specifically mentioned in the summons, which the lawyer summoned can challenge under... the BNSS (Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita),” Justice Chandran, who authored the 78-page judgement, said.