Chennai: A lawyer who tried to smuggle ganja in his shoe for a remand prisoner in Puzhal jail was suspended from practicing, besides being arrested and remanded to jail. Continuing the clean-up process for ridding the noble profession of errant advocates, the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry has ordered the suspension of S. Sunil Kumar from practicing in all courts, tribunals and other authorities in the country “till the disposal of the disciplinary
proceedings” against him. The BCTP in its order on Monday also suspended two other lawyers for professional misconduct.
R. Muthukrishnan was suspended for accusing Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul of conducting ‘katta-panchayat’ (kangaroo court) because his petition against the ‘compulsory helmet rule’ was dismissed. Lawyer V Antony Jyothi Sheeran has been suspended for “unruly conduct” in quarreling with the CISF personnel manning the high court entrance at the ‘frisking point’ on November 20 last year.
With this, 47 lawyers have so far been suspended from practicing on charges of misconduct since the Madras high court, the Bar Council of India and the BCTP began cracking down around September last year on indiscipline and unruly behavior by the lawyers. Of these, three lawyers have been slapped with suspension after they were caught consuming alcohol inside the high court complex late night.
Ordering the suspension of Sunil Kumar, the BCTP said his attempt to smuggle ganja for a remand prisoner “is squarely against the morality of the society and also to the professional ethics to be maintained by the legal fraternity”. In the case of Muthukrishnan, the BCTP recalled that his language during the court proceedings was “offensive in character and reflection of disrespect towards the judicial system and (that) it comes from a lawyer is all the more unfortunate”.
BCTP chairman D. Selvam told DC that the three suspensions were part of a serious effort by the Council to cleanse the legal system of lawyers indulging in misconduct and unethical practices. “Action has been taken only against errant lawyers who misbehaved, made allegations against the judiciary and indulged in misconduct. In fact, our fraternity practicing this noble profession will wholeheartedly support this cleansing process”, he said.
