MADURAI
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Monday suo motu impleaded the Bar Council of India after it was brought to the notice of the court that an advocate whose name was struck off the advocates’ roll was still indulging in illegal activities such as conducting kangaroo courts.
Justice N. Anand Venkatesh took cognisance of the fact that S.R. Balasubramanian, the advocate whose name was struck off the rolls in 2016, was indulging in illegal activities after he went on an appeal before the Bar Council of India against the removal of his name.
The Bar Council of India, taking up the appeal, granted an interim stay on the action taken against him and the case has been pending for over two years. Balasubramanian has three cases, booked under various sections of the IPC, pending against him.
Balasubramanian reportedly continued to indulge in illegal activities such as conducting kangaroo courts, arm-twisting innocent persons and extorting money by interfering in lawful possession of properties, the court said.
The court also took note of a case in which ₹ 5 lakh was obtained from a property owner through extortion by Balasubramanian, who allegedly went to the extent of putting up an advocate’s office on the property. Following the intervention of the High Court Bench and the Dindigul Superintendent of Police, the property was restored to the rightful owner.
The court also took note of the fact that two other advocates, S. Saravanakumar and V. Subramani, were also involved in the case. The State Bar Council had already initiated action against them. A fourth person, Vetriselvam, a law student, was also reportedly involved in the case. The court directed that the law student not be enrolled until further orders as “it is better to prevent such persons from getting into the profession at the threshold itself.”
The court directed that the pending appeal be taken up by the Bar Council of India which should complete the proceedings within two months and restrain the advocates from practising before any court in the State.
The court had earlier impleaded the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry in the case. It ordered filing of a status report by the Bar Council of India as well as the State Bar Council and posted the case for further hearing on October 22.