Suspension of 5,970 advocates kept in abeyance

This was decided after a division bench comprising Justice N Kirubakaran and Justice R Pongiappan asked the BCTNP to provide the suspended advocates some time to enable them pay up and get the suspension revoked.

The bench sitting at Madurai heard the plea moved by Madras High Court Advocates Association (MHAA) through video conferencing. The hearing witnessed heated arguments, with the MHAA advocate contending that the suspension order has been passed in a single stroke without any notice being offered. This was countered by senior council R Singaravelan, who is also part of the Bar Council committee, saying that at least eight notices have been issued since 2018, two by post and the remaining were on the council’s website. Of the 5,000 odd mails sent, as many as 4,021 returned for want of proper address.

Singaravelan noted that only 12 layers have come forward to pay the fee since the suspension order was issued on March 21. Of these, at least six failed to produce their certificateof practice.

Hearing this, the bench wondered about the genuineness of the advocate who is unable to adhere to the rule in the first place, and pay up a mere Rs 1,500 to Rs 3,000 – that too for their own welfare. Also, taking exception to the submission that payment of welfare fund was voluntary and cannot lead to suspension, the bench said the MHAA may file an affidavit that the scheme was not required and can hence be scrapped.

Aspects like the whole process being election-oriented and that the advocates who were yet to pay up were fake and hence they should weeded also figured during the course of the arguments, when the counsel appearing for MHAA said it was a plea pertaining to the common cause of the advocates and that they cannot give an undertaking that all the 5,970 suspended advocates would pay up.

Senior counsel Singaravelan also brought up the incomplete addresses of most of the advocates wherein the person’s name and the court’s name alone figured. But this was blamed on the earlier Bar Council office bearers who had registered names without even obtaining proper addresses, allegedly for the sake of votes.

However, the bench refused to grant four months as sought by MHAA to enable the suspended members pay the fee, and sought BCTN to keep the order in abeyance for two weeks. The plea has been posted to April 11 for further hearing.