ED crossing all limits: Supreme Court pulls up agency for summons to lawyers for giving legal advice

The Enforcement Directorate is "crossing all limits", the Supreme Court said on Monday, 21 July, and expressed serious concern over the agency summoning advocates for offering legal advice or representing clients during investigations. It also called for guidelines on the matter.

The remarks were made by a bench of Chef Justice of India B.R. Gavai and Justice K. Vinod Chandran during the hearing of a suo motu case over the ED summoning senior lawyers Arvind Datar and Pratap Venugopal for rendering legal opinions to their respective clients. They were looking at the implications of such actions on the independence of the legal profession.

“The communication between a lawyer and the clients is privileged communication and how can the notices be issued against them… they are crossing all limits,” the CJI said.

“Guidelines should be framed,” he said while responding to submissions that recent ED notices to legal professionals like senior advocate Datar could have a chilling effect on the practice of law.

Attorney general R Venkataramani and solicitor general Tushar Mehta said the issue had been taken up at the highest level and the probe agency has been asked to not issue notices to the lawyers for rendering legal advice.

“Lawyers cannot be summoned for rendering legal opinions,” the solicitor general said.

He, however, said there have been attempts to malign institutions by creating false narratives.

Mehta said attempts were being made to malign institutions by creating false narratives and cautioned against forming opinions based on media narratives.

"I am saying this, not the ED, there is a concerted effort to create a narrative against an institution. My lords may find in a few cases where there is overstepping…,” the solicitor general said.

“There is a concerted effort to target institutions. Please don’t go by interviews and news,” the law officer said.

Responding to this, CJI Gavai said, “We don’t watch the news, haven’t seen YouTube interviews. Only last week I managed to watch a few movies,” said the CJI, who was indisposed last week.

“We said it… don’t politicise this,” the Chief Justice added.

“The moment I heard about Mr. Datar, I immediately brought it to the notice of the highest executive,” Mehta said.

The bench directed all parties, including the Supreme Court Bar Association(SCBA), represented by its president and senior advocate Vikas Singh, to file comprehensive notes on the issue and allowed intervention applications.

The matter is now listed for further hearing on July 29.

The summons issued to Datar and Venugopal was condemned by the SCBA and the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association, which called the move a "disturbing trend" that struck at the very foundations of the legal profession.