Sulekha moves Supreme Court against Madras High Court order to take down lawyer ads

Digital platform Sulekha has moved the Supreme Court against directions to take down its advertisements published by lawyers [Sulekha.com New Media Pvt Ltd v PN Vignesh and ors].

A Bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and SVN Bhatti on November 11 issued notice in the matter and tagged it with a similar plea filed by JustDial.

"Issue notice, returnable in four weeks. After service of notice, the matter be tagged," the Court said.

The Supreme Court had in August sought the Bar Council of India's (BCI) response to a similar plea by JustDial, which is against the same Madras High Court order.

The top court had in August stressed the need to examine whether JustDial's commercial activities comply with the Advocates Act and BCI regulations.

The Madras High Court had in July directed the Bar Council of India (BCI) to issue guidelines urging State bar councils to initiate disciplinary action against lawyers who advertise or solicit work directly or indirectly through ads, messages and touts.

It had also directed the BCI to register complaints against online service “providers/ intermediaries,”, like Quikr, Sulekha and JustDial, who act in breach of Rule 36 of the Bar Council of India Rules.

It even directed the Bar Council to remove such advertisements that have already been published by lawyers through such online service providers, and advise intermediaries to not publish such ads in future.

The Madras High Court's directions came on a plea filed by one PN Vignesh seeking action against websites that provide “online lawyer services” on their websites.

The High Court had taken a dim view of "branding culture" among lawyers.

It noted that the websites give ratings without any basis and that it was apparent that they were selling legal services of lawyers for a fixed price, which goes against the Bar Council of India Rules.

This led to the appeals by Sulekha and JustDial before the apex court.

The top court, while issuing notice, refused any interim relief and also declined to keep the High Court order in abeyance.

The BCI is yet to file its response in the matter.

Advocates Ankur Khandelwal, Utkarsh Sharma and Sahil Siddiqui appeared for Sulekha.