Supreme Court upholds two-year suspension of lawyer who leaked client secrets

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a two-year suspension of an advocate's license, ruling that a lawyer's duty of confidentiality towards a client survives even if the client later becomes an adversary. A bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and Vijay Bishnoi affirmed the Bar Council of India's disciplinary committee order against advocate Rizwan Siddique for disclosing confidential information of his former client, actress Rehana Khana (Rozlyn Khan), in television interviews in 2014.

The case arose from a complaint by Khana, who had engaged Siddique as her counsel in 2013-2014 in a sexual assault case against a senior police official. In August 2014, Siddique gave TV interviews where he disclosed confidential communications, played recorded conversations, and called her complaint a "false case of rape." The BCI disciplinary committee found him guilty of professional misconduct on August 11, 2025, imposing a two-year suspension, a Rs 3 lakh fine payable to the complainant, and Rs 2 lakh to the Bar Council's welfare fund.

The court rejected Siddique's argument that proceedings were ex parte, noting he participated throughout. However, it dismissed Khana's plea for enhanced punishment, observing she had not approached with clean hands as she herself gave a press briefing while the matter was pending and discussed trapping the police official with her lawyer. The court imposed costs of Rs 5 lakh each on both parties, to be deposited with the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee within four weeks.