The Bar Council of India (BCI) has taken an “extraordinary” step to suspend 15 advocates for allegedly indulging in violence in the Madras High Court.
The apex statutory body of the lawyers directed the Tamil Nadu State Bar Council to conclude the disciplinary proceedings against the advocates in a month. It also debarred the advocates from practising before any court or authority during a disciplinary probe against them for “gross professional misconduct”.
BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra said the Madras High Court violence has opened a Pandora' box revealing the malaise and the sheer drop in the standards of the legal profession. He noted that the incidents of lawlessness and regular hooliganism that affected the high court highlighted how the bar councils and lawyers’ bodies cower in terror as a growing number of persons with fake degrees vandalise courts and hold judges and fellow professionals to ransom.
Terming the turn of events at the Madras High Court “a very strange and unfortunate situation,” the BCI said the most telling point was how the Tamil Nadu Bar Council chairman expressed his inability to act against the errant lawyers, “particularly the leaders of the unruly advocates because of their muscle power, bad antecedents and criminal history”.
“The number of non-practising advocates and those with fake and forged certificates (posing as lawyers) is increasing day by day,” the BCI said, ruing lack of mechanism to do the background check of lawyers before enrolment.
The action from the BCI action came as the Chief Justice of India H L Dattu recently expressed his anguish saying the Madras High Court judges have developed a “fear psychosis” of lawyers due to their sit-ins the courtrooms over their various demands including introduction of Tamil language in court proceedings.
Published 24 September 2015, 19:18 IST