The Madras High Court has recorded the allegation of an advocate that seven lawyers holding crucial positions in the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry (BCTNP) have a criminal background. The submission was made during the hearing of a case related to a fake advocate, and the court decided to hear him at length on September 28.
Justices S. Vaidyanathan and A.D. Jagadish Chandira were told by advocate J. Rupert Barnabas that he had received credible information regarding the criminal background of the seven lawyers in the Bar council and was trying to gather more particulars about them. He named the seven, which the court recorded in its interim order.
The advocate told the court it need not be shocked by just two random advocates facing criminal cases and claimed that even those holding crucial positions in the Bar Council were not clean. Mr. Barnabas urged the court to permit him to get impleaded in the fake advocates case being heard by it so that he could assist the court with more details about those lawyers.
The judges rejected his request for impleadment on the grounds that it might lead to similar requests from other members of the Bar and that would compound the issues and complicate the case. They, however, permitted him to assist the court in taking a decision on cleansing the Bar of unwanted elements and adjourned the matter to September 28.
