Legislators Can Continue To Be Lawyers: BCI Sub-committee Report

New Delhi: The expert panel which had been constituted by Bar Council of India to decide on whether legislators can continue to be lawyers has reached a majority decision confirming that they can do so.

However, Advocate S Prabhakaran, who was a special invitee in the panel, has differed from the majority view of the other three panel members and has said that "MPs and MLAs cannot practice as lawyers due to their conflict of interest".

BCI Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra told News18 that though a final decision on the matter would be taken next week.

"We met today to consider a report by the sub-committee on the representation by Ashwini Upadhyay. Out of four members of the committee, three think that legislators can be allowed to practice on the condition that if a motion to remove him is moved in the Parliament, then he won't intervene. S Prabhakaran thinks that they have to be debarred," said BCI Chairman.

Mishra also said that by next week, they would complete a period of eight weeks since the formation of the expert panel and the extension time as sought by MPs and MLAs.

"General council thinks the matter needs more consideration and hence the matter is deferred till next week. We have received replies to notices seeking an eight-week extension and with regard to principles of natural justice, we will take a final call by then," said Mishra.

The sub-committee had recently submitted its report to the Bar Council of India and had also accepted last minute submissions from applicant advocate Ashwini Upadhyay.

A three-member expert committee, constituted by the Bar Council of India to decide whether lawmakers can be lawyers, had also decided to issue notices to more than 500 lawyers who are MPs, MLAs and MLCs.

Bar council chairman Mishra told News18: "The decision to issue notices was taken so that if the BCI cancels their enrolments, they cannot claim that principle of natural justice was violated".

Sources have told News18 that one of the key factors that have impacted this decision was a point that "taking the fee from litigant and salary from Public Fund is a professional misconduct".

Advocate Debi Prasad Dhal, co-chairman of BCI and member of the expert committee, told News18 that the ground raised by "Upadhyay citing Rule 49 of BCI was being deliberated upon and notice was issued to follow due process".

Some of the names that are under the radar include: Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, KTS Tulsi, P Chidambaram, Vivek Tankha, K Parasaran, Bhupendra Yadav, Meenakshi Lekhi, Pinaki Mishra, Satish Mishra and Ashwini Kumar.

BJP leader and Supreme Court advocate, Ashwini Upadhyay, who had filed a plea to debar lawyers, said there is a clear conflict of interest as MPs and MLA have powers to "impeach judges".

"The MPs who have the power of impeachment and can impeach a judge of the Supreme Court where they appear day in and day out; it could be possible that the judges concerned may not be able to discharge their duty without fear. Judges are mostly men of great wisdom and are fearless. However, the public may sometime perceive that judges give favourable orders to few lawyers... As it is said that Caesar's wife should be above suspicion!" read the additional statement filed by Upadhyay.

Upadhyay said that a legislator plays important role in the development of his state and cannot be 'sailing in two boats’.