Bar Council of Delhi to hear plea against Bharti on Jan 20

The Bar Council of Delhi today decided to hear on Monday a complaint seeking disciplinary action against Law Minister Somnath Bharti, who has been indicted by a court for "tampering of evidence" in a case in which he had appeared as a lawyer.

Advocate Murari Tiwari, Secretary of Bar Council of Delhi, said, "We will discuss the complaint regarding disciplinary action against Bharti in a bar council meeting on January 20."

BJP's Delhi unit chief Vijay Goel has filed a complaint before the council seeking action against Bharti in the wake of the indictment case against him.

Goel has complained that in August, 2013, a special CBI court here had held Bharti's conduct as highly objectionable and unethical, besides also amounting to tampering of evidence, after he, as a defence lawyer in a corruption case, contacted a prosecution witness and attempted to bring on record an audio-recording of a conversation before the court.

The court had made these observations while cancelling the bail granted earlier to Bharti's client, facing trial in a graft case relating to bank fraud.

The trial court, in its order cancelling accused Pawan Kumar's bail, had also observed that the accused had admitted that he and his counsel Bharti had contacted the witness over phone and had a conversation with him in respect to the case.

Kumar had moved an application seeking court's permission to place on record the audio recording of the conversation while the CBI had filed a plea seeking cancellation of bail granted to Kumar on the ground that he had tried to tamper with the evidence.

The Supreme and the Delhi High Court had also dismissed the appeal of Bharti's client in the case.

Goel has said instead of accepting his mistake, Bharti had tried to justify his conduct by terming the court judgement erroneous.