Court lets lawmakers pursue legal practice

India’s Supreme Court yesterday said that lawyers-turned-lawmakers, both in Parliament and the state legislatures, cannot be barred from practising before the courts during their term as lawmakers. “To sum up, we hold that the provisions of the Advocates Act of 1961 and the Bar Council of India Rules framed thereunder do not place any restrictions on the legislators to practise as advocates during the relevant period,” said the bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud in their judgment.

The court said this while addressing a limited question whether legislators can be debarred from practising as advocates during the period when they continue to be the members of Parliament or a state Assembly/Council.

The top court judgment refusing to restrict lawmakers from practising as advocates before the courts has come as a boost to senior lawyers Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, P. Chidambaram, KTS. Tulsi, Pinaki Misra, Meenakshi Lekhi and K Parasaran, who are among the parliamentarians practising as advocates.

While rejecting the plea to bar the lawyers-cumlawmakers from practising law before the courts, the top court also said the conferment of power on the members of Parliament to move an impeachment motion against the judge(s) of the constitutional courts does not per se result in conflict of interest. The court’s verdict came on a plea filed by advocate and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, contending that MPs/MLAs practising as advocates pose a conflict of interest under the provisions of the Advocates Act, 1961, and the Bar Council of India Rules.