The Jharkhand High Court at Ranchi stayed a summons issued under the Railway Property (Unlawful Possession) Act, 1996, to practicing lawyer Agniva Sarkar after the Railway Protection Force (RPF) summoned him for inquiry based on his client’s confessional statement. The Court held that the summons dated 24.7.2025 was intended to compel disclosure of privileged attorney-client communications and directed that no further similar notices be issued to the petitioner until the disposal of the petition.
The petitioner challenged the summons through urgent mentioning, arguing impropriety as he was a lawyer defending multiple accused in the same RP(UP) Case, and the summons was based on the confessional statement of one of the co-accused.
The core issue before the Court was whether investigating officers could summon a defense counsel based on confessional statements referring to attorney-client communications. The Court noted that in the confessional statement, the accused had stated that the petitioner is their defence counsel, representing them in bail applications, and had assured them to continue their activities as he would ‘save them, which formed the basis for the summons issued for July 27, 2025.
Justice Ananda Sen held that summoning an advocate who is defending the accused by the investigating officer probing the crime was really disturbing. The Court observed that any communication between an Advocate and his client, no matter what is the status of his client, is a privileged communication, and ruled that whatever he has communicated with the accused cannot be forced to be divulged before any Investigating Officer.
The Court concluded that prima facie, this Court feels that only to know the details of the privileged communication, this summon has been issued and termed this unfortunate. Therefore, the impugned notice was stayed as an interim measure, and the matter has been listed for further hearing on 10 September, 2025.
Appearances:
Petitioner: Mr. Ajay Kr. Sah, Advocate
Union of India: Mr. Anil Kumar, ASGI with Mr. Abhijeet Kr. Singh, CGC, and Ms. Chandana Kumari, AC to ASGI