The licence will remain suspended till the inquiry pending against Bansal in the Bar is complete.

Advocate K D S Hooda, appearing for the council, argued: “The case is of an extremely serious nature as it pertains to attempting to bribe a High Court judge. Moreover, accusations of a nexus involving higher members of the judiciary have also been leveled. The alleged nexus can only be exposed once the investigation is complete.”

He tendered a written complaint to the council demanding that Bansal should not be allowed to appear in any court during the pendency of the inquiry initiated against him as he is an accused in the case.

On the other hand, Sanjeev Bansal, also present in the Bar Council, termed the suspension as “illegal, hasty and without jurisdiction”.

Bansal said: “The Bar Council wants to hide its own misdeeds. According to the provisions of the Advocates Act, the Bar Council requires a complaint to take action against an advocate. When I appeared before the Bar on the last date of hearing, I demanded a copy of the complaint, which was not provided. It was only after I pointed out that fact that the council drafted this complaint in order to counter my appearance in court on Friday.”

On Friday, Bansal had appeared before the Chief Justice to argue a service case for the first time since the scandal broke.

When asked why the Bar Council took so long to suspend Bansal’s licence, a member said: “We could not take action against him as he was in jail for more than 50 days. Also, we wanted to give Bansal an opportunity to put his case forward before suspending his licence.”