"Chilling message to legal community": SCAORA condemns ED summons to Senior Advocate Arvind Datar

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association on Monday castigated the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoning senior advocate Arvind Datar after he gave legal advice to a firm. The notice, which was subsequently withdrawn by the ED, was issued to Datar after he reportedly gave legal advice to Care Health Insurance on the ESOP (employee stock ownership) issued to former Religare Enterprises Chairperson Rashmi Saluja. The SCAORA said such a notice was a "chilling message to the legal community at large and threatens the foundational right of every citizen to receive independent legal counsel without fear or intimidation".

Advocate and president SCAORA Vipin Nair said the ED action was not only unwarranted but also reflected a disturbing trend of investigative overreach that threatened the independence of the legal profession and undermined the very foundation of the rule of law. "Datar is a respected Senior Advocate of unimpeachable integrity, who has consistently upheld the highest standards of professional conduct and legal ethics,” said SCAORA secretary Nikhil Jain in the statement. Summoning a senior member of the Bar for discharging his professional responsibility, he said, was a misuse of authority and an affront to the sanctity of the advocate's role. “The independence of the judiciary and the independence of the Bar are twin pillars of our constitutional democracy. The effective functioning of courts is impossible without fearless and independent advocates. When investigative agencies resort to coercive measures against advocates merely for giving legal opinions, they do not just target individuals, they strike at the institutional structure that ensures justice," the statement added. The SCAORA further said undermining the professional independence of advocates ultimately threatened judiciary's independence. It also pointed to several judgments shielding advocates from the purported actions of their clients for merely giving legal opinions. “The ED's action conflates legal advice with criminal complicity, a proposition that is constitutionally untenable and legally unjustifiable,” it said. If advocates can be subjected to coercive measures for providing legal advice, it would paralyse the functioning of the legal system and erode public confidence in the justice delivery mechanism, it added. Though the summon was withdrawn by the ED, the SCAORA lodged its "strong protest" against the "arbitrary exercise of executive power".