NEW DELHI: The
Bar Council of India (BCI) could put in rules in two days to ban lawyer-parliamentarians from appearing in court if they signed
impeachment motions against
judges, its chairman said.
“This is a simple matter. The rules will be in place in two days,” Manan Mishra told the ET over the phone. However, a decision has yet to be made on whether to stop such lawyers from appearing before only the judge against whom they moved the motion or the entire court. As per a resolution adopted by the council, the rules will kick in only after an impeachment motion is admitted by the chair in either House.
The resolution was passed in response to a court notice on a plea by
BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay, who first petitioned the council in vain to stop legislators from practicing as lawyers citing conflict of interest. Upadhyay, a lawyer himself, later moved the top court by way of a PIL. A bench, led by Chief Justice
Dipak Misra, issued a notice to the BCI asking its views.
Days after the Congress pushed for an impeachment motion against the
CJI, the council in response to the notice said it would be tough to keep out all lawmakers from practice, but suggested that rules be framed to keep out those who were part of any impeachment process admitted by the House. “The only issue now remaining is whether the MPs or MLAs should be barred from appearing before that specific bench or the entire court,” the BCI chief said.
This is unlikely to go down well with lawmakers with flourishing legal practices such as Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, P Chidambaram and Vivek Tankha. The BCI resolution recorded the objections of Sibal, Singhvi and Tankha to any such move, though there was lack of clarity over who all signed the impeachment proposal.
Reacting to the development, senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the BCI should leave it to the lawyers concerned to voluntarily avoid appearing before the judge against whom they have signed impeachment motions.
