BCI issues notices to lawyers

The Executive Committee of the Bar Council of India on Friday midnight issued showcause notice to two defence lawyers for allegedly making derogatory remarks about women in the controversial BBC documentary 'India's Daughter' on the Nirbhaya rape incident.

"We held discussions on the question whether the alleged remarks made by the two lawyers amounted to professional misconduct," Bar Council of India Chairperson Manan Kumar Mishra told The Hindu yesterday.

Mishra said the two lawyers in question – Manohar Lal Sharma and A K Singh – have three weeks' time to respond to the BCI notice. "They can either seek an oral, in-person hearing or file their written replies to the notice issued. We will then examine the question of professional misconduct under the Advocates Act. If found liable for professional misconduct, BCI can choose to revoke the lawyers' licences," he said.

 Sharma and Singh are defence lawyers for the four persons on death row for the brutal gang-rape and killing of a 23-year-old medical student in Delhi in December 2012.