Above: Bar Council of India/Photo: Anil Shakya  

In the issue of whether MPs/MLAs, who are also lawmakers, can practice law at courts, the Bar Council of India (BCI) has taken a decision that they are allowed to do so but clarified that they wouldn’t be allowed to practice if “they start any motion of impeachment or removal of judge”.

In this particular case, it involves top level senior lawyers, such as Kapil Sibal, Vivek Tankha and Abhishek Manu Singhvi. These, along with others are principally involved in the impeachment process of Chief Justice Dipak Misra. Which means that these lawyers-cum-MPs will not be allowed to argue before the Chief Justice’s court.

The decision comes in the wake of petition filed in the apex court seeking debarment of MPs/MLAs from practising law at courts. The petitioner-advocate Ashwini Upadhyay had earlier sent a notice to the Bar Council of India requesting to bar the MPs and MLAs from practising law.

—India Legal Bureau