'ED crossing all limits': Supreme Court over summons issued to lawyers

The Supreme Court on Monday said that it was "shocked" to learn about summons being issued to senior lawyers by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for legal opinion rendered by them to their clients.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) B R Gavai said that guidelines need to be framed in this regard (probe agencies summoning lawyers for their legal advice). "Even if it is wrong, it is a privileged communication (between a lawyer and a client). How can ED summon lawyers?", CJI Gavai verbally remarked.

Disapproving of the conduct of ED, the CJI verbally told Attorney General R Venkataramani that ED officers "are crossing all limits".


The CJI told the AG that earlier in the day, the bench had disapproved of ED's conduct in pursuing political matters. The CJI was referring to his verbal remarks made by him in pleas against West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and Karnataka CM Siddharamaiah's wife Parvathi. The ED had filed an appeal in the top court against the Karnataka High Court decision to quash the summons issued to Parvathi, who is a co-accused in the MUDA scam. Refusing to entertain the appeal, the CJI had verbally told ED's counsel "please do not force us to say something. Otherwise we have to say something very harsh about the Enforcement Directorate. Let political battles be fought among the electorate. Why are you being used for it?".

Fairly conceding that ED could not have summoned the lawyers for their legal advice, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that there is "a concerted effort to create a narrative against the institution (ED)". Mehta added that general observations of the bench are "misconstrued considering individual cases".

Speaking for the bench, CJI Gavai verbally observed "we are seeing in multiple cases that even after reasoned orders of high courts, ED is filing appeals just for the sake of it!"

The bench said that guidelines need to be framed,

The development took place during the resumed hearing of a suo motu case initiated by the top court on summons issued by ED to two senior advocates Arvind Datar and Pratap Venugopal in the course of the ED's investigation into the grant of over 22.7 million Employee Stock Option Plans, valued at more than ₹250 crore, by Care Health Insurance to former Religare Enterprises chairperson Rashmi Saluja.