The Disciplinary Committee of the Bar Council of India: Organisation, Powers and Procedure

In one line

Same three members and the same powers as a State committee, but it has an original jurisdiction of its own, it hears appeals, and it can take a case away from a State committee.

In exam wording: the disciplinary committee of the Bar Council of India is constituted under section 9 of the Advocates Act 1961 and exercises the powers in section 42 by force of section 42A; its jurisdiction arises under section 36 in original matters, under section 36(2) and section 36B on withdrawal and transfer, and under section 37 in appeal.

Organisation, briefly

Section 9 applies to every Bar Council, State and national alike. So the disciplinary committee of the Bar Council of India is three persons: two elected by the Council from among its members, one co-opted advocate with the ten-year qualification in the proviso to section 3(2) who is not a member of the Council, and the senior-most advocate among them is Chairman. Chapter [The Disciplinary Committee of the State Bar Council: Organisation, Powers and Procedure] sets this out and it is not repeated.

Section 42A does the same for powers: "The provisions of section 42 shall, so far as may be, apply in relation to the Bar Council of India, the enrolment committee, the election committee, the legal aid committee, or any other committee of a Bar Council as they apply in relation to the disciplinary committee of a Bar Council."

So the national committee has the same civil court powers, the same proviso about summoning judges, the same deeming of its proceedings as judicial, the same rule about a member's absence, and the same deadlock provision.

What is different: three heads of jurisdiction

This is the substance of the chapter, and it is what an examiner is testing.

Head one: original jurisdiction over an advocate on no State roll

Section 36(1): "Where on receipt of a complaint or otherwise the Bar Council of India has reason to believe that any advocate whose name is not entered on any State roll has been guilty of professional or other misconduct, it shall refer the case for disposal to its disciplinary committee."

The words "whose name is not entered on any State roll" are the whole of this head. Section 35 gives a State Bar Council jurisdiction over advocates on its roll; if an advocate is on no State roll, no State Bar Council has jurisdiction, and section 36(1) fills the gap.

The provision is narrow, because section 17(4) requires every advocate to be on a State roll and forbids being on two. It matters for the residual cases the Act's transitional provisions produced.

Note the structure is identical to section 35(1): a complaint or otherwise, reason to believe, and shall refer.