#New Delhi

In a verdict aimed at protecting lawyer-client privilege, the Supreme Court on 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 (SP). The top court also set aside the summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to two senior lawyers, Arvind Datar and Pratap Venugopal, and said they infringed the fundamental rights of the accused who hired them.

A bench comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justices K Vinod Chandran and N V Anjaria delivered the verdict in a suo motu case taken up after the ED summoned Datar and Venugopal in connection with a money laundering probe. The bench also rul

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