The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has withdrawn the summons issued to Senior Advocate Pratap Venugopal.

The summons issued by ED pertained to an investigation involving the Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP) granted by Care Health Insurance to former Religare Enterprises Chairperson Rashmi Saluja.

Venugopal was the Advocate-on-Record for a legal opinion authored by Senior Advocate Arvind Datar, which supported the grant of stock options. The ED had earlier issued a similar notice to Datar, but it was later withdrawn.

Earlier today, the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association (SCAORA) wrote to the Chief Justice of India BR Gavai, flagging the issuance of summons by the ED to Venugopal.

In a strongly-worded letter dated June 20, SCAORA President Vipin Nair described the ED’s action as “a deeply disquieting development” that poses a serious threat to the foundational principles of lawyer-client confidentiality and the independence of the legal profession.

SCAORA emphasised that Venugopal is “a widely respected member of the legal fraternity,” whose professional record and sincerity led to his designation as a Senior Advocate earlier this year.

“These actions, by the ED, we believe, amount to an impermissible transgression of the sacrosanct lawyer-client privilege,” the letter stated, warning that such coercive measures could have a chilling effect on the legal community.