SC looks at ways to make lawyers accountable for frivolous pleas | India News

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court severely criticised the tendency of lawyers to sign petitions without reading them and decided to explore ways to make them accountable for useless and frivolous pleas.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sudhanshu Dhulia and Prashant Kumar Mishra hauled up three lawyers involved in drafting, filing and arguing a petition seeking to scrap Articles 20 and 22 from the Constitution and termed the petition atrocious.The bench directed them to file their response on how such a frivolous petition was filed in the apex court and made it clear to them that they would not be let off lightly.
Article 20 talks about protection in respect of conviction for offences and says that no person accused of any offence shall be compelled to be a witness against himself. Article 22 protects people against arrest and detention in certain cases.
Noting that the three advocates had been practising for more than nine years, the bench said that filing of such a petition showed their abject lack of knowledge of law, making it a fit case to cancel their professional license. Though the lawyers apologised for their “mistake”, the court refused to let them off.