Ahead of protest, Bar council suspends 126 lawyers in Tamil Nadu

Chennai: In an unprecedented action, the Bar Council of India (BCI) on Sunday suspended a total of 126 lawyers of Tamil Nadu, and prohibited them from practising in any court or tribunal. They shall not be treated as lawyers for any purpose, and their disciplinary proceedings for professional misconduct would be conducted at different places, BCI said.
The surgical strike by BCI comes on the eve of the lawyers' call to lay siege to Madras high court on Monday, and their announcement that they would not allow anyone, even judges, to enter the campus.
BCI chairman Mannan Kumar Mishra confirmed the news in the evening, and told TOI that the pre-emptive action was most necessary to bring to an end the prolonged lawyer unrest in Tamil Nadu. "Almost every member of the so-called Joint Action Committee (JAC) which has been misleading the legal fraternity in mofussil courts of Tamil Nadu has been suspended from the rolls," Mishra told TOI. He said Bar Council too had certain views about the newly notified disciplinary rules for lawyers, but it would like to hold discussions with the high court and its rules committee along with Bar leaders and council members. "Strikes and boycotts are not the best way to deal with the issue," he said, adding that he and other members would visit Tamil Nadu in the next few days to hold parleys and end the impasse.
Prominent among the suspended lawyers are P Thirumalairajan, chief coordinator of JAC, M Velmurugan, former member of Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, Madras High Court Advocates Association (MHAA) secretary Arivazhagan, Women Lawyers Association (WLA) president Nalini and Egmore Bar Association president Chandan Babu. Listing the names of lawyers against whom action was being taken, the BCI press release said: "The BCI press release said: "The Council resolves to suspend the following members of so called Joint Action Committee and a few other unruly members who are actively and regularly creating problem in administration of justice and in due discharge of the duties of the genuine practising lawyers. It is because of these lawyers that works of courts and clients are held up and paralyzed for last two months. Therefore, this council has no other option than to put these unruly lawyers under suspension.
"These persons shall not be allowed to practice in any be allowed to practice in any court or other forum and they shall not be treated as an advocate for any purpose. The council further resolves to initiate the disciplinary proceeding against these lawyers for the aforementioned misconduct and the proceedings will be held different places," it said.
The batch of 126 lawyers suspended by the Bar Council of India ahead of the Monday protest joins another group of at least 44 lawyers who were suspended for misconduct and are attending disciplinary proceedings. Ever since the high court notified a new set of disciplinary rules empowering the high court and district courts to debar lawyers found collecting money in the name of judges, tampering with court records, browbeating or abusing judges, taking out rallies on court campus, or laying siege to court halls, in May this year, a large section of, lawyers expressed dissatisfaction and called it draconian.
Even as the boycott con tinued for about two months, the BCI set July 22 as deadline to withdraw boycotts and warned lawyers that it would suspend Bar leaders sponsor ing the agitation, and would debar them from contesting in Bar elections and council posts.
The high court administration, on its part, warned lawyers disrupting court work of contempt action.