Supreme Court Directs Bar Councils To Decide Complaints Against Advocates Within One Year Of Their Receipt; Suggests Empaneling Retired Judicial Officers As Inquiry Officers

On Friday, the Supreme Court issued directions to the State Bar Councils to dispose of complaints under Section 35 expeditiously and conclude the same within a period of one year from the date of receipt of the complaint as mandated under Section 36 B of the Advocates Act. The Apex Court also passed directions to expedite the disposal of the transferred proceedings before the Bar Council of India.A bench comprising Justices M.R. Shah and B.V. Nagarathna held that only in exceptional cases and on providing cogent and valid reasons for non-disposal within one year, the proceedings would be transferred to the Bar Council of India. It further observed that BCI ought to dispose of the transferred proceedings/complaints within a period of one year from the receipt of transfer. "...we direct the Bar Council of India to finally dispose of the transferred complaints, the particulars of which are referred to hereinabove expeditiously but not later than one year from today and for which even the Disciplinary Committee of the Bar Council of India may hold circuit hearings"."We also direct the respective State Bar Councils to decide and dispose of the complaint(s) received by it under Section 35 expeditiously and to conclude the same within a period of one year from the date of receipt of the complaint as mandated under Section 36B of the Advocates Act".Considering that 1273 complaints were transferred to the BCI from State Bar Councils over last five years, the Court noted that a mechanism for disposal ought to be developed. "For an efficient and quick disposal of the complaints by the Bar Council of India vis-à-vis those complaints which have been transferred to it as per section 36B of the Act, the Bar Council of India may consider empanelling experienced and seasoned advocates and/or retired judicial officers to act as Inquiry Officers where an inquiry would be necessitated. On such inquiry being concluded the report of the Inquiry Officers could be received by the Bar Council of India. On consideration of the said inquiry report, the Bar Council of India could pass appropriate orders on the complaint." The Court directed BCI to issue directions to State Bar Council to enlist a panel of Inquiry Officers for conducting the inquiry on behalf of BCI and upon enquiry provide report to BCI so that it can take appropriate actions. The complainants and the concerned advocates against whom the complaints can appear before the Inquiry Officers in the State where the complaints are filed. "This would also remove the difficulties caused to the parties to travel from various parts of the country to Delhi for appearing before the inquiry, if any, to be conducted on the complaints filed by the complainants." To expedite the process of disposal of complaints at the state level, the Court directed the Disciplinary Committee of State Bar Councils to meet on a regular basis. It further directed the State Bar Council to enlist a panel of Inquiry Officers who could be entrusted with the conduct of the inquiry as and when the same is necessitated on a complaint. The disciplinary committee of the State Bar Council on consideration of the said inquiry report would pass orders in accordance with the provision of section 35 of the Act.Not impressed by the justification of Bar Council of IndiaThe BCI told the Court that the pendency of the complaints was primarily due to COVID pandemic. The Court said that it was not impressed with this reasoning."We are not at all impressed by the reasoning given by the learned counsel on behalf of the Bar Council of India for not disposing of the transferred complaint(s) by the Disciplinary Committee of the Bar Council of India. The COVID-19 pandemic commenced only in March,2020. As per the chart submitted by the Bar Council of India, in the year2016, a total of 171 cases; in the year 2017, a total of 242 cases; in the year of 2018, a total of 214 cases and in the year 2019, a total of 490 cases were transferred to the Bar Council of India. At-least those cases could have been disposed of by the Bar Council of India at the earliest. One can appreciate the delay in disposal of the transferred complaint(s)received in the year 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19 pandemic but not for the earlier period".The Court said that the statistics not only reflect on the increasing number of complaints being filed against the advocates but also the fact that the State Bar Councils have not discharged their duty in disposing of these complaints within a period of one year and have simply allowed the complaints to be transferred by operation of law from the State BarCouncils to the Bar Council of India in terms of section 36B of the Advocates Act. Bench summarizes principles on advocacy "We are constrained to issue the aforesaid directions and suggestions having regard to the observations of this Court which are extracted as under:- (i) "The Bar Councils are ...

Supreme Court Directs Bar Councils To Decide Complaints Against Advocates Within One Year Of Their Receipt; Suggests Empaneling Retired Judicial Officers As Inquiry Officers

Sohini Chowdhury

Tags