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In a recent judgment, the Division Bench of Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan of the Supreme Court has emphasised that disciplinary proceedings cannot be initiated by the Bar Council for transactions that are unconnected with the professional conduct of an advocate.
The case has its genesis in December 2003, when a complaint was lodged with the Bar Council of Chhattisgarh and which held advocate Kaushal Kishore Awasthi guilty of professional misconduct, on the basis of a complaint filed by his client.
The argument which was raised in the appeal before the apex court bench of Justice AK Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan was solely on the basis that even if the allegations contained in the complaint are taken to be correct on its face value, these do not amount to committing any misconduct as per the provisions of the Advocates Act and Rules framed thereunder.
Kaushal Kishore Awasthi was Advocate who appeared for the complainant in a suit of declaration he had filed. His justification for raising the objection, therefore, was that since land was being sold by the claimant without clearing his debt, it could not be done.
“Even as per the complainant’s own admission, it is much thereafter that the complainant intended to sell the property in question when he found himself in need of money. It is this sale which the appellant tried to interdict. He was not doing so in the capacity of an Advocate. As per him, the complainant was not authorised to sell the property without repaying his debt,” the bench concluded.
Whether the appellant was right in this submission or not is not relevant. What is relevant is that this act has nothing to do with the professional conduct of the appellant”, the Bench said and set aside the order holding that the initiation of disciplinary proceedings against the lawyer by the State Bar Council was improper and without jurisdiction.
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