The Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association (SCAORA) wrote to Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai on Friday (June 20, 2025) to take urgent suo motu cognisance of the Enforcement Directorate’s issuance of summons to senior advocate Pratap Venugopal over legal advice tendered to a client.
Mr. Venugopal is the second senior counsel in the apex court, after senior advocate Arvind Datar recently, to receive summons from the Central agency.
Other advocates’ bodies, including the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and the Bar Association of India, also issued resolutions expressing their “deep anguish, concern and unequivocal condemnation of the action taken” by the ED to summon advocates for services rendered in discharge of their professional duty.
“These actions, by the ED, we believe, amount to an impermissible transgression of the sacrosanct lawyer-client privilege, and pose a serious threat to the autonomy and fearless functioning of advocates,” advocate Vipin Nair, president of the SCAORA wrote to the Chief Justice.
The SCAORA’s office-bearers later informed that the ED withdrew the summons issued to Mr. Venugopal.
