No reprieve for BMW case lawyers

The SC declined to give immediate relief to senior advocates R K Anand and I U Khan, who were last month banned from appearing before any court within the jurisdiction of Delhi HC for the next four months, reports Bhadra Sinha.

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to give immediate relief to senior advocates R.K. Anand and I.U. Khan, who were last month banned from appearing before any court within the jurisdiction of Delhi High Court for the next four months.

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A bench headed by Justice B.N. Aggarwal also made it clear to the counsel for the two advocates that it would not entertain any arguments against the High Court order recommending stripping off their senior advocate designation.

“There is nothing wrong in the direction. It was within the High Court’s jurisdiction to give such direction,” said the court.

A bench headed by Justice Manmohan Sarin had imposed restriction on the practice by Anand and Khan after finding them guilty of criminal contempt for persuading witness Sunil Kulkarni to turn hostile in the hit-and-run case involving Sanjeev Nanda.

The bench had also made recommendation to the full bench of the High Court to strip Khan and Anand’s designation of senior advocate. Besides, it had proposed the full court to consider designating Arvind Nigam, who assisted the court during the hearing, as a senior advocate.

Reacting to the direction sharply, Justice Aggarwal said: “If the court has given you this privilege (of senior advocate), it is equally competent to take it away from you. The court passed this order after concluding that the allegations were too serious. There is no questioning of accepting any arguments against this direction.”