The Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry (BCTNP) has suspended from practice 19 advocates on different charges. They include P.R. Adikesavan who had prevented the police from executing a non-bailable arrest warrant (NBW) issued against him by the Madras High Court, insisted on examining a judge who issued the warrant and demanded recusal of another judge hearing a suo motu contempt proceeding against him.
Justices P.N. Prakash and A.A. Nakkiran had found the advocate guilty of contempt on March 25 and sentenced him to two weeks of imprisonment apart from imposing a fine of ₹2,000 with a default sentence of one more week of imprisonment. The judges prevented him from appearing before the High Court for one year and referred the matter to BCTNP secretary C. Raja Kumar for initiating appropriate action. Accordingly, the council resolved to prohibit the advocate from practising before any court, tribunal and other authorities until the disposal of the disciplinary proceedings against him.
As far as the suspension of other advocates were concerned, they had been prohibited from practice on the basis of registration of cases of murder, narcotics, job racket, impersonation and other cases.
BCTNP chairman P.S. Amalraj said G. Sathish Kumar of Chennai was facing a murder case registered at Esplanade police station and Erode advocates I. Ezhilarasan and S. Nathiya were facing a narcotics case in their district.
A. Dineshbabu of Tiruvannamalai was facing a case under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and T. Muthuraj of Vruddhachalam had been booked in a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act case. A job racket case had been registered against A. Murugaiyan of Chennai, a murder case had been booked against I. Prabhu of Kanniyakumari and police had opened a history sheet against T.A. Velanandhan of Tiruvallur.
V. Virumandi of Chennai and H. Rajesh Kannan of Tiruvallur were accused of having suppressed their employment at the time of enrolment. A. Parthiban of Tiruppur had been convicted in a criminal case and sentenced to one year imprisonment and E. Raja of Salem had been convicted and sentenced to seven years of imprisonment in a criminal case. V. Surendiran of Nagapattinam was facing a murder case.
Advocates Manohara Reddy, V. Bharathi and K. Selvi, all from Hosur, and M. Sankar from Dharmapuri district were suspended due to allegations of having filed fake motor accident claim petitions using fabricated medical bills. Lastly, J. Lenin Clemenceau of Puducherry was suspended for reportedly practising as an advocate in another name in violation of the provisions of the Advocates Act of 1961.
Published - May 09, 2022 08:40 pm IST
