In a money laundering case, two senior lawyers were summoned by the central agency ED for providing legal advice to an accused, which was opposed by the Supreme Bar Association. Later, the ED withdrew the summons, but now the Supreme Court has raised questions on such summons by agencies and police and expressed concern. The Supreme Court has said that summoning lawyers by the police or agencies for legal advice given by lawyers is a threat to the independence of the administration of justice. A bench of Supreme Court Justices KV Vishwanathan and N Kotishwar Singh had said that the legal profession is an integral part of the administration of justice. If we allow defense lawyers to be summoned by the police or agencies for their legal advice, it will seriously affect the legal profession, such a concession will put the independence of the judicial administration at risk. Lawyers who are practicing their own law have been given some special rights. Along with this, the Supreme Court also asked some questions. The bench said that the first question is that if a person is advising as a lawyer in a case, can the investigating agency, police directly summon him for questioning? The second question is that assuming that the agency or police has not only legal advice regarding the lawyer but also any other issue related to the case, then in such a situation, can the lawyer be allowed to be summoned directly or should judicial supervision be imposed? However, this observation of the Supreme Court did not come up with considering the lawyers who were recently summoned by the ED and withdrawn. This observation of the Supreme Court is related to a case from Gujarat.
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