The Supreme Court on Wednesday partially stayed the Madras high court order suspending advocate R.K. Chandramohan from the chairmanship of Tamil Nadu and Pudducherry Bar Council for allegedly trying to act as middleman on behalf of former commutations minister A. Raja to “influence” a judge in the case of bail of his relatives in June 2009.
A bench of Justices D.K. Jain and H.L. Dattu granted the interim stay on the December 12 verdict of the HC after Mr Chandramohan moved an appeal against it.
The limited stay on the HC order was on two counts: (i) suspending Mr Chandramohan from the chairmanship of Tamil Nadu and Pudducherry Bar Council and (ii) recommending the sending of a complaint to the Bar Council of India against him for appropriate action, including issuing a direction by the apex regulator for lawyers that he would not function as the chief of the state bar council. Mr Chandramohan’s counsel Mukul Rohtagi argued that the high court had “overstepped” its jurisdiction in issuing the twin directions as the Supreme Court in its several rulings had clearly laid down that such issues relating to lawyers could only bed dealt by the BCI not by the courts.
“The HC verdict is contrary to the Supreme Court judgements that only the BCI has the jurisdiction in the matter. If the apex court cannot do it, how can the High Court do?” Rohtagi asked. Agreeing with him, the bench said “at the most it should have been a case of contempt (against Mr Chandramohan)”.
The bench also questioned petitioner lawyer E.R. Rajendran on whose PIL the HC passed the verdict, as under which law he had sought suspension of Mr Chandramohan in his PIL.