A Dismay story of Indian Advocates & Litigants

A Dismay Story of Indian Advocates & Litigants

This is the story of Indian advocates who waited for almost 13 years to decide the fate by the Supreme court of India where a consumer complaint can be filed against and advocate against the money taken as fee and service provided by him to his client is defective one and the is engaged in the unfair trade practices

Advocacy is a Noble Profession

It is a settle proportion of law that the profession of the practicing lawyer is a noble profession created to provide legal remedies to the people of the society, the people of the poor category and the unprivileged one, by becoming the voice of the voiceless.

It is a noble profession thus the Goods and Service Taxes, Professional Taxes etc. are not applied on the fee collected by a practicing lawyers.

It is true in this profession that a lawyer can charge a fee as per his wise and the client can pay the same as per his wise.

The lawyers is compelled to act as PRO-BONO for the poor or pauper, act as per the direction of Legal Service Authorities and as an attached lawyer to a police station.

The fee is given and taken on the promise that the lawyer will provide the required legal remedy to the client who paid for the same or promised to pay for the same.

Everything will be fine if the lawyer act in good faith but it is not found always as a lawyer is bound to be biased under the instigation of the Opposit party or by the Opp. party’s lawyer, for the Vote-Bank politics, direction of his senior or any other factor and the corruption prevailing in the Judiciary as it is a universal fact that each brick of judiciary demands bribe and the bribe are given and taken openly.

In the case of deficiency in service or unfair trade practices, the rights of a client should be protected and for the same a client had the following forums available to redress his complaint against a lawyer

1. Complaint Before the State Bar Council under section 35 of the Advocate Act, 1961

2. Police Complaint u/s 154(1) of CrPC.,1973 for the offence u/s 420,406 of IPC,1860.

3. Institution of a money suit before the civil court.

4. Consumer Complaint before the DCDRC etc.

The last one the very easy for both the lawyers and the client to settle their dispute as it does not have any adverse effect on both as the the suspension of the advocate license or the imposition of the penalty in case the false complaint.

Bar Council of India and State Bar Councils were failed miserably to regulate their members advocates.

Chapter V of the Advocate Act, 19961 regulates the conduct of a advocate.

It is an obligatory duty of Bar Council of India and State Bar Council to Regulate their member advocates but they both failed miserably to do so the advocates have become untamed bulls

There is no record published by the BCI or SBCs as to the no. of Complaint received against their members advocates, how many adjudicates, how many were not decided and send to the BCI for the redressal as per the provision of Champer V as number of complaint are lying pending before the State Bar Council and under a deep-rooted criminal conspiracy the same were not disposed of or not send to the BCI for the redressal of the same.

No. state bar councils or BCI ever published any data related to the complaints and its pending status violating the provision of the section 4(1)(b) of the RTI act 2005. both the BCI and SBCs are not providing any information through RTI also.

No online portal is created to lodge, admit and upload the order passed by the Disciplinary committee by the BCI or SBCs. The same has been done under a deep-rooted criminal conspiracy to conceal the material facts.

for years the complainant were not informed about the status of the case pending fore the bar councils.

In many cases the cases are closed illegally and arbitrarily violating the principles of natural justice and the order copies were not provided to the complainant so that the review petition or appeal can be filed. The corrupt section officer and

No. compliance of the 5Ts initiative of the state ever made.

The State Bar Council also charging for of Rs.1500/- to admit a complaint against its member advocate which is illegal and arbitrary as it is the jurisdiction of the disciplinary committee to decide the fee as per the provision of section 43 of the Statute.

Even after taking the fee in advance the BCI and The SBCs never adjudicated many complaints but informed privately to the respondent advocate that a complaint is filed against him them the advocate is threatening the complainant or tampering the evidence.

Direction were given to the BCI by the Apex court in the case of CHARANJETT SINGH CHNDERPAL Vs VASANT D. SALUNKHE AND Ors.,Contempt Petition No.309 of 2022, decided on 09-01-2023 , to redress the pending complaints against the member advocates but nothing has been done by the BCI and SBCs to comply with the order.

Last Chance: Supreme Court Asks Bar Council

The Apex court observed That ,

It is necessary to maintain discipline and purity of the profession.

If an advocate has committed misconduct, he should be punished.

The Acts of the BCI and SBCs should bring the faith of the litigant in judiciary.

Three months were given i.e upto 31-12-2022 to the dispose of all the pending complaints.

SC directs the BCI to redress the complaint against the advocates-order

The Court had passed a detailed judgment and order/directions directing the BCI to see to it that all pending complaints pending before the concerned state

On Wednesday, the bench of Justices M. R. Shah and Krishna Murar was hearing a contempt petition concerning the aforesaid judgment.

Justice Shah to Senior Advocate and BCI Chairman Manan Mishra: “When the litigant goes to the bar council, initially he goes to the bar Council of the concerned state. When the state bar council does not take any action, after that the cases are deemed to have been transferred to the bar Council of India. Now if they are also taking 1, 2, 3, 4 years, what will happen? Indiscipline cannot be tolerated”

A Dismay story of Indian Advocates & Litigants