HC convicts senior advocates Anand, Khan in BMW expose case

• The court held the two guilty of “... obstructing the administration of justice”.
• The court has debarred the duo from appearing in high court and lower courts for four months. It has recommended that they be stripped of their designation of senior advocate.
• The High Court’s order evoked sharp reaction from bar associations of the four district courts, which called a one-day strike on Friday. According to them, only the Bar Council of Delhi or Bar Council of India can debar a lawyer from practising, not a court.
• On May 30 last year, NDTV aired a sting operation showing public prosecutor Khan and Nanda’s lawyer Anand negotiating separately with witness Sunil Kulkarni to turn hostile and save Nanda. The next day the high court had initiated contempt proceedings against the lawyers.
• After 15 months of hearing and close scrutiny of the tapes, a Bench of Justices Manmohan Sarin and M.B. Lokur said: “We are not dealing with a young lawyer who, driven by ambition and desire to make his career and in his over-zealousness, transgresses the limits by crossing the Lakshman Rekha. We are dealing with senior advocates who are expected to become role models for younger members of Bar.”
• The debate in the legal circles is whether the court has the authority
  to suspend the licences of lawyers. An eminent senior Advocate, KTS
  Tulsi has expressed shock over why the court has not utilized the
  audiovisual proofs to send the duo to prison.
  
• "I will not give a carte blanche statement that judges cannot be
  corrupt…I have seen some very odd judgments in my time," said Salve.
  
• Salve recollected the time when society had zero tolerance for such
  instances and the accused would hang their head in shame.
  
  "But society has now accepted corruption as a part of life," lamented Salve.
  
• "The errant judges must be punished. There is no doubt about this that
  those at fault will definitely have to be appropriately dealt with in
  accordance with the law," said U C Bannerjee.
  
• In a particular case two years ago, a court in Gujarat had issued
  bailable arrest warrants against the then serving President of the
  country. Isn't that a manipulation of courts or is it a simple case of
  influence finding its way?
  
  "If the court has ordered it, the court must have justifiable reasons
  for that and if the court has ordered it, I have nothing more to add
  or to say," commented Banerjee.
  
• "It is tragic but I am not totally shocked," said a pragmatic Singh.
  "What shocked me is the leniency of the sentence. It seems that if you
  belonged to a privileged fraternity, you can get away with murder.
  Even more shocking is the support the legal fraternity is giving to
  the people the court has punished," Singh added about the Delhi
  District Lawyers Association support to Anand and Khan.
  
• "There was a time when a client came to you and requested you to study
  and contest his case. But now people come to lawyers with cases and
  ask outright but discreetly, if the lawyer knows any fixer or
  middleman to plug the jury," Salve said.
  
• "I cannot comment of the decision given by the high court. It is not the jurisdiction of the high court to debar or cancel the license of a lawyer. Only the Bar Council of India can take a decision in the matter," K K Menon, Chairman of the Delhi Bar Council, said.
  

"The matter (the lawyers trying to bribe the key witness) is pending before the bar council and it will give a decision in the next hearing," he added.

• Senior lawyer Lalit Bhasin said: "This jurisdiction vests with the Bar Council of India. Generally the Bar takes cognizance of the conduct or misconduct of lawyer in accordance with the Advocate Act and the Bar Council of India's rule."
  
• "A constitutional bench of the Supreme Court has given the power to debar or cancel the license of a lawyer to the Bar Council of India. But what is peculiar is that so much time has passed but the Bar has not taken any decision in this regard.
  

"Moreover the punishment of debarring the lawyers from practice for four months and a fine of Rs 2,000 is highly inadequate. The reputation of the lawyers have taken a beating after the expose and a stringent punishment is called for the guilty," Jaiswal said.

• "The expose is an aberration. The role of legal profession has not taken any beating, as right from the freedom struggle to the current cabinet, the lawyers are contributing largely in the public life," Bhasin said.