The Delhi bar council will take suo motu action against advocates ML Sharma and AP Singh, who made controversial comments in a documentary about the December 2012 Delhi rapists, whom they had represented.

Delhi bar council member Vijay Sondhi said: “Everybody is disturbed.”

“I had a word with the chairman of bar council of Delhi [KK Manan] and he is of the opnion that suo motu cognizance will be taken,” added Sondhi.

Sondhi said that the council would serve show cause notices on Sharma and Singh shortly, in the coming working days.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) is reportedly currently also discussing what action, if any, to take against the two lawyers.

The Delhi bar council under Manan had also issued show cause notices in 2007 to senior advocates RK Anand and IU Khan over perverting the course of justice in the BMW hit-and-run case.

The Delhi high court in 2009 banned both from practising for four months, which the BCI criticised as an encroachment of its powers. Anand and Khan were eventually stripped of their senior designations but Anand was rehabilitated after promising to work pro bono for a year and donate Rs 21 lakh to the BCI.