In a landmark verdict aimed at protecting lawyer-client privilege, the Supreme Court Friday issued a slew of directions to curb arbitrary summoning of lawyers by probe agencies for rendering advice, and said investigating officers (IOs) cannot summon them in criminal probes unless approved by the superintendent of police.

A bench of Chief Justice BR Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran, while deciding a suo motu case titled as ‘IN RE: Summoning Advocates who give legal opinion or represent parties during investigation of cases and related issues’, issued a detailed framework aimed at preventing arbitrary coercion of lawyers by police and other probe agencies.

“The investigating agency/prosecuting agency/the police cannot directly summon a lawyer appearing in a case to elicit the details of

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