Every accused has right to be defended in court, says HC

NAINITAL: Uttarakhand high court on Tuesday restrained all bar associations of the state from passing resolutions to prevent advocates from representing a person in a criminal cases, saying that all accused have a constitutional right to be defended in court.
Sharing details of the case, Kartikey Hari Gupta, the counsel for the petitioner, told TOI that in May 2019, Vinod Kumar was arrested on ground of suspicion on charges of murder of an advocate Sushil Kumar Raghuvanshi. He engaged Kuldeep Agarwal to appear for his defence. "Kotdwar Bar association, however, passed a resolution against all its members that no advocate shall defend Vinod Kumar in court because he is accused of killing an advocate. Agarwal filed a public interest petition in the HC challenging the same."
Asserting that all accused have a constitutional right to be defended in the court by a counsel of their choice, Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice Alok Kumar Verma of directed the Kotdwar Bar Association to pay Rs 25,000 to the petitioner Kuldeep Agarwal. Gupta told TOI, "The bench passed a final judgment that the Kotdwar Bar Association resolution preventing any petitioner or any other advocate to defend murder accused Vinod Kumar is unconstitutional hence illegal."
The HC further directed, "Uttarakhand Bar council has power to take action against any bar association of the state who issues such resolutions preventing advocates to appear for their clients. Additional district judge is directed to sternly deal with any interruption caused by Kotdwar Bar Association, in any form, to court proceedings. Additional District Judge shall take prompt action against any member of Kotdwar Bar association who may cause any impediment to the petitioner in the discharge of his obligation as an advocate for the accused."