New Delhi, March 18 -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday condemned lawyers' violent conduct, saying the legal profession, "once regarded as a noble profession", has been "tainted and tarnished" by incidents of hooliganism, including vandalism of a toll plaza and the ransacking of a fellow advocate's office for representing the accused.

A bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta made the observations while granting bail to toll plaza employees accused of assault and transferring the trial to Delhi, noting that the accused had been effectively denied legal representation due to the prevailing atmosphere.

The case arises from a January 14 incident at the Gotona Bara toll plaza on the Lucknow-Sultanpur highway in Uttar Pradesh, where an...