Overview
- Investigating agencies may not call practising advocates over client advice except under narrow exceptions in Section 132 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam.
- Any summons to a lawyer must spell out the specific facts relied on, carry written clearance from a superior not below superintendent rank, and is open to challenge under the BNSS.
- The court quashed Enforcement Directorate notices to senior lawyers Arvind Datar and Pratap Venugopal issued in a money-laundering probe.
- Lawyers’ digital devices must be produced before the jurisdictional court, with notice to the lawyer and client and supervised decryption or extraction in their presence to protect other clients’ confidentiality.
- The ruling preserves exceptions for criminal complicity, excludes in-house counsel from Section 132’s privilege (with limited protection under Section 134), and sets a uniform protocol for all agencies beyond the ED’s internal curb.