Supreme Court Seeks BCI’s Response On Granting Relaxation To Lawyers

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, advocates have also suffered a great loss as their livelihood is interrupted. With courts being closed, all their form of income is under stake. The Supreme Court has sought response from The Bar Council of India, to use advertisements to solicit work and pursue other sources of income in these tough times.

Chief Justice Bobde and Justices R Subash Reddy and A S Bopanna issued the notices on July 14, Tuesday, and have asked the response within two weeks. Due to lockdown, many lawyers and legal practitioners have suffered revenue loss and some have also committed suicide with increased economic pressure.

The BCI rules state that “An advocate shall not solicit work or advertise, either directly or indirectly, whether by circulars, advertisements, touts, personal communications, interviews not warranted by personal relations, furnishing or inspiring newspaper comments or producing his photographs to be published in connection with cases in which he has been engaged or concerned”.

Since BCI has the power to make amendments and rules in the legal arena, Petitioner advocate, Charanjeet Chanderpal, has sought directions to permit the lawyers to advertise through certain sources to take up chamber works like taxation and registration works and also take up other professions to generate income to meet their daily needs. He also asked them to permit this only until March 2021, until things get back to normal.