NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association (SCAORA) on Monday condemned ED’s notice to senior advocate Arvind Datar for his legal opinion on allotment of employee stock option plan (ESOPs) granted to Rashmi Saluja, ex-chairperson of Religare Enterprises by Care Health Insurance, which is being probed by the agency.Datar had objected to the summons, saying a legal professional’s opinion in connection with a case could not be the subject matter of probe. ED subsequently withdrew the summons. Despite its withdrawal, SCAORA, through president Vipin Nair and general secretary Nikhil Jain, issued a statement on ED’s unwarranted action. tnnProbing lawyers for legal opinion undermines rule of law: SCAORA Despite withdrawal of summons, SC Advocates on Record Association (SCAORA) through chief Vipin Nair and general secretary Nikhil Jain issued a statement on ED’s unwarranted action, saying it “reflects a disturbing trend of investigative overreach that threatens the independence of legal profession & undermine the very foundation of the rule of law”.“To summon a senior member of the Bar for discharging his professional responsibility is a misuse of authority and an affront to sanctity of role of advocates. When agencies resort to coercive measures against advocates merely for giving legal opinions, they don’t just target individuals, they strike at the institutional structure that ensures justice,” SCAORA said. “If advocates can be subjected to coercive measures for providing legal advice, it would paralyse the functioning of the legal system and erode public confidence in the justice delivery mechanism,” it added.

ED had earlier sent a questionnaire to Arvind Datar and former IRDAI chairman J Hari Narayan, asking them whether they knew before giving legal opinion that IRDAI, the insurance regulator, had already rejected the offer of ESOPs to Saluja, who is under investigation for alleged financial irregularities related to Religare.Sources said Saluja was facing a criminal probe for alleged irregularities in Religare and its subsidiary Care Health Insurance. IRDAI has not only cancelled ESOPs granted to her but imposed a penalty of Rs 1 crore for allotment of ESOPs despite IRDAI’s disapproval. Saluja has already exercised Rs 40 crore worth of ESOPs before it was cancelled by IRDAI. Datar told ED he could not respond to queries without approval of the client (Religare). However, Religare said it had no objection to ED asking Datar to explain the circumstances.