The Faizabad Bar Association on Monday resolved not to allow its members to represent the eight accused arrested in the Ram Temple donation embezzlement case and warned that those defying it would face a Rs 5 lakh penalty, even as legal experts disapproved of the decision.”The sentiments of all of us have been hurt by the theft of temple offerings. The lawyers of Faizabad have agreed not to plead on behalf of the arrested accused,” Bar Association secretary Shailendra Jaiswal said.Lawyers demanded that Champat Rai, Anil Mishra and Gopal Rao — associated with the management of the Ram Temple but not named in the FIR — “must leave” Ayodhya within three days, failing which the temple town would be blockaded and no one would be allowed to enter.The eight arrested accused — Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lav Kush Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey, Ram Shankar Mishra, Subhash Srivastava and Ramashankar alias Tinnu Yadav — associated with counting cash and valuables received as donations at the Ram Temple – were arrested following registration of an FIR on submission of a preliminary report by an SIT appointed by the state government.The Faizabad Bar Association had taken a similar decision in 2005 after a terror attack on the then makeshift Ram Temple.There were other cases such as the 26/11 Mumbai terror (2008) attack and Nirbhaya gang rape and murder (2012) in which local bar bodies passed resolutions asking their members not to defend those accused of these ghastly crimes.However, senior counsel Sanjay Hegde said, “Refusing to represent an accused in a court where a lawyer normally practises amounts to professional misconduct.”Former chairman of the Bar Council of Delhi KK Manan said, “To have legal assistance from a lawyer of his choice is the right of every accused. A bar association can’t pass a resolution to prevent lawyers from representing the accused in a case. Rather, it’s their duty to provide legal assistance to the accused.”Terming the Faizabad Bar Association’s resolution as unfortunate, Manan said, “An accused is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty and, therefore, lawyers must not refuse legal assistance to an accused.”