Kotdwar Bar Association To Withdraw Notice Restricting Its Members From Representing Lawyer's Killer

The Kotdwar Bar Association has agreed to rescind its notice restricting its members from representing in court a person accused of murdering a lawyer.

Appearing on behalf of the bar association before a division bench of the Uttarakhand High Court, counsel D S Mehta said the notice preventing advocates from appearing on behalf of the accused was wrong and it will be withdrawn, the petitioner's counsel Kartikeya Hari Gupta said.

The notice had been issued by the secretary of the bar association warning members of eviction if they appeared on behalf of the accused.

The court of Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice Alok Kumar Verma has asked the bar association to file an affidavit accordingly by July 8 when the matter is posted for the next hearing, Gupta said.

Hearing a PIL challenging the legality of such notice on June 13, the High Court had come down heavily on the Bar Association for prohibiting its members from appearing on behalf of the accused in the case.

All accused are entitled to legal representation, it said adding a resolution like this could not be permitted under law.

Asserting that everyone had a right to be represented in a court of law the Chief Justice had said, "Even if someone shoots me then also you cannot refuse to represent the accused in court. Even Kasab (Ajmal Amir Kasab, convict in Mumbai terror attacks on 26 November 2008) was not denied representation in court."

An advocate named Sushil Raghuvanshi who was part of Kotdwar Bar Association was shot dead by some unknown persons in 2017.

Five persons including two shooters accused in the case were arrested recently while another accused surrendered a couple of days later.

At an emergency meeting convened by the Kotdwar Bar Association after the arrest of the accused, the lawyers body issued a strict warning to its members asking them not to represent the accused in the court or face eviction.

One of the accused Vinod Lala, a well known property dealer of Kotdwar, had gone to court challenging the legality of the resolution.