Peer review of summons issued to lawyers unworkable; Supreme Court issued adequate guidelines: Arvind Datar

Published on : 09 Nov 2025, 5:47 am 7 min read

When the Supreme Court took suo motu notice of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summons to senior lawyers earlier this year, it confronted a test of limits. How far can agencies go before they breach the independence of the Bar?

For Senior Advocate Arvind Datar , who himself faced such summons, the answer came with clarity. The Court, he says, chose the right solution by rejecting a peer review mechanism and tightening safeguards within existing law.

In this conversation with Bar & Bench's Debayan Roy, Datar praises the Court for opting for a simpler and enforceable remedy through senior-level approval before any summons and automatic judicial review.

He also discusses the contours of client privilege, the vulnerability of in-h