The Supreme Court (‘SC’), in In Re: Summoning Advocates who give legal opinion or represent parties during investigation of cases and related issues^[1] issued, inter alia, the following directions in relation to issuance of summons by investigating agencies to advocates:

i.    an investigating agency should not issue summons to an advocate to elicit details of a case where the lawyer appears for a party, except where the summons falls within the exceptions (under Section 132 of the Bhartiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023);

ii.   such summons must explicitly state the facts on which the exception is sought to be relied upon;

iii.  such summons must be issued with the consent of a supervisory officer, not below the rank of a Superintendent of Police, who should record his satisfaction as to the exception in writing, before the summons is issued; and

iv.   such summons will be subject to judicial review at the instance of the advocate or the client before the appropriate High Court (‘HC’) (under Section 528 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023).

[1] In Re: Summoning Advocates who give legal opinion or represent parties during investigation of cases and related issues, 2025 SCC OnLine SC 2320.