The Bar Council of India: Constitution, Powers and Functions

Functions: section 7

Section 7(1) lists the functions. They fall into five groups, and grouping them is the way to remember them. Note before starting that clause (a) of section 7(1) was omitted by the amending Act of 1973 with effect from 31 January 1974, so the live list begins at clause (b).

Standards of the profession.

• (b) to lay down standards of professional conduct and etiquette for advocates. This is the hinge of the whole subject. Everything in Module II is made under this clause, read with the rule-making power in section 49(1)(c).
• (c) to lay down the procedure to be followed by its disciplinary committee and the disciplinary committee of each State Bar Council. Everything in Module III's procedure is made under this clause with section 49(1)(f).

Protecting advocates.

• (d) to safeguard the rights, privileges and interests of advocates.
• (e) to promote and support law reform.
• (ia) to conduct seminars and organise talks on legal topics by eminent jurists and publish journals and papers of legal interest.

Legal education, which is where most of the Bar Council's public activity lies.

• (h) to promote legal education and to lay down standards of such education in consultation with the Universities in India imparting such education and the State Bar Councils.
• (i) to recognise Universities whose degree in law shall be a qualification for enrolment as an advocate, and for that purpose to visit and inspect Universities or cause the State Bar Councils to visit and inspect Universities in accordance with such directions as it may give.
• (ic) to recognise on a reciprocal basis foreign qualifications in law obtained outside India for the purpose of admission as an advocate.

Clause (i) is the clause that stands behind section 24(1)(c). A law degree qualifies only if it is from a University the Bar Council of India has recognised, and the power to inspect is how that recognition is policed.

Supervision and dispute resolution.

• (f) to deal with and dispose of any matter arising under this Act which may be referred to it by a State Bar Council.
• (g) to exercise general supervision and control over State Bar Councils.

Clause (g) is short and is the source of a great deal. It supports section 48B, the power to give directions, and it was one of the provisions the Constitution Bench relied on in Bar Council of India v. Bonnie Foi Law College, decided 10 February 2023, when holding that the Bar Council of India has power to prescribe the All India Bar Examination.

Money, elections and the residue.

• (ib) to organise legal aid to the poor in the prescribed manner.
• (j) to manage and invest the funds of the Bar Council.
• (k) to provide for the election of its members.
• (l) to perform all other functions conferred on it by or under this Act.
• (m) to do all other things necessary for discharging the aforesaid functions.

Clauses (l) and (m) are the residuary clauses, and they were the other limbs the Court relied on in Bonnie Foi. Section 7(2) lets the Bar Council of India constitute funds for welfare schemes for indigent or disabled advocates, for legal aid, and for establishing law libraries; section 7(3) lets it receive grants, donations, gifts or benefactions for those purposes.

Section 7A lets the Bar Council of India become a member of international legal bodies such as the International Bar Association or the International Legal Aid Association, contribute subscriptions, and authorise expenditure on its representatives at international conferences.

Committees: sections 9, 9A and 10

A Bar Council works through committees, and a student must know which committee does what.

Section 10(2): the Bar Council of India shall constitute two standing committees:

• an executive committee of nine members elected by the Council from amongst its members;
• a legal education committee of ten members, of whom five are elected by the Council from amongst its members and five are co-opted persons who are not members of the Council.

The co-option in the legal education committee is deliberate: it brings academics onto the body that decides what a law degree must contain.

Section 9 requires a Bar Council to constitute one or more disciplinary committees, each of three persons, of whom two are elected by the Council from amongst its members and the third is co-opted by the Council from advocates who possess the qualifications in the proviso to section 3(2) and who are not members of the Council. The senior-most advocate among the members is the Chairman. Those committees are Module III's subject.

Section 9A lets a Bar Council constitute one or more legal aid committees of not more than nine and not fewer than five members.

Section 10(3) lets a Bar Council constitute such other committees as it thinks necessary.

Section 10A deals with meetings: the Bar Council of India meets at New Delhi or elsewhere for reasons recorded in writing, committees other than disciplinary committees meet at the headquarters, and disciplinary committees meet at such times and places and observe such procedure as may be prescribed.

Section 10B is the disqualification: an elected member is deemed to have vacated his office if the Council declares him to have been absent without sufficient excuse from three consecutive meetings, or if his name is removed from the roll of advocates for any cause, or if he is otherwise disqualified under a rule of the Bar Council of India.

Staff, accounts and rules: sections 11, 12, 15, 49 and 49A

Section 11: every Bar Council shall appoint a secretary and may appoint an accountant and other staff. The secretary of a Bar Council must possess the prescribed qualifications.

Section 12: every Bar Council shall cause to be maintained books of account and other books in the prescribed form, shall appoint auditors, and shall send a copy of the audited accounts and the auditors' report to the Central Government, which shall be published in the Gazette. A State Bar Council also sends its audited accounts to the Bar Council of India.

That section is worth noticing in a subject that has an accountancy module. The Bar Council's own accounts are audited and published, and the same statute that requires the institution to keep books requires the individual advocate to do so through rules 25 to 32.

Section 15 is the general rule-making power of a Bar Council for carrying out the purposes of Chapter II, covering election of members, manner of election of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman, the filling of casual vacancies, the powers and duties of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman, the constitution of funds, and the summoning and holding of meetings.

Section 49 is the general power of the Bar Council of India to make rules, and three of its clauses matter to this subject above all others:

• section 49(1)(c), rules prescribing the standards of professional conduct and etiquette to be observed by advocates, which is the source of the whole of Module II;
• section 49(1)(f), rules prescribing the procedure to be followed by the disciplinary committees, which is the source of Module III's procedure; and
• section 49(1)(ag), rules on the class or category of persons entitled to be enrolled as advocates, which is the clause the Constitution Bench relied on decisively in Bonnie Foi.

Section 49A gives the Central Government power to make rules for carrying out the purposes of Chapter III and Chapter IV of the Act, and provides that such rules may repeal or amend rules made by a Bar Council.

A worked example

A new private University in Maharashtra announces a three-year LL.B. and admits students. Two years later the students discover that the Bar Council of India has not recognised the course.

What has gone wrong, and under which provisions.

1. Section 24(1)(c) requires a degree obtained after a three-year course from a University in India recognised for the purposes of this Act by the Bar Council of India.
2. Section 7(1)(i) is the function under which the Bar Council of India recognises Universities and visits or inspects them, or causes the State Bar Councils to do so under its directions.
3. Section 6(1)(gg) is the corresponding function of the State Bar Council: to visit and inspect Universities in accordance with directions given under section 7(1)(i).
4. Without recognition the degree does not satisfy section 24(1)(c), so the graduates cannot be enrolled, and section 33 means they cannot practise.

What the students can do. The matter is one arising under the Act, so a State Bar Council may refer it to the Bar Council of India under section 7(1)(f), and the Bar Council of India may act under its general supervision and control in section 7(1)(g) and give directions under section 48B.

Change one fact. Suppose the University is recognised but a State Bar Council refuses to enrol its graduates on some other ground. Section 26(2) requires that proposed refusal to go to the Bar Council of India for opinion, and section 26(3) makes that opinion binding.

What beginners get wrong

Advocates do not elect the Bar Council of India. Election is indirect: advocates elect the State Bar Council, which elects one of its members to the national body.

The Attorney-General and the Solicitor-General are members, ex officio. They are not merely invited.

The legal education committee is not made only of Council members. Five of its ten are co-opted from outside.

Section 7 lists functions, not powers of punishment. The Bar Council of India's disciplinary jurisdiction comes from sections 36, 36B and 37, and it is exercised by its disciplinary committee, not by the Council.

Recognition of a University is not automatic and is not a matter for the University Grants Commission alone. Section 7(1)(i) makes it the Bar Council of India's function for the purposes of this Act.

Quick revision

• Section 4: the Bar Council of India consists of the Attorney-General and the Solicitor-General ex officio and one member elected by each State Bar Council from amongst its members. Section 4(1A): a candidate needs the ten-year qualification in the proviso to section 3(2). Section 4(2): Chairman and Vice-Chairman elected by the Council.
• Section 5: every Bar Council is a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal, able to sue and be sued.
• Section 7(1) functions, grouped: standards of conduct (b) and disciplinary procedure (c); safeguarding advocates (d), law reform (e), seminars and journals (ia); legal education (h), recognition and inspection of Universities (i), reciprocal recognition of foreign qualifications (ic); references from State Bar Councils (f) and general supervision and control over State Bar Councils (g); legal aid (ib), funds (j), elections (k), and the residuary (l) and (m).
• Section 7A: membership of international legal bodies.
• Section 10(2): executive committee of nine; legal education committee of ten, five elected and five co-opted from outside. Section 9: disciplinary committees of three, two elected and one co-opted, chaired by the senior-most advocate. Section 9A: legal aid committees of five to nine.
• Section 10B: a member vacates office on absence from three consecutive meetings without sufficient excuse, or on removal of his name from the roll.
• Section 12: books of account, audit, and publication of the audited accounts in the Gazette.
• Section 49(1)(c) is the source of Module II; section 49(1)(f) of Module III's procedure; section 49(1)(ag) of the All India Bar Examination.

Test yourself

1. Who are the members of the Bar Council of India? The Attorney-General of India and the Solicitor-General of India, both ex officio, and one member elected by each State Bar Council from amongst its own members, under section 4(1).

2. Are members of the Bar Council of India elected directly by advocates? No. Advocates elect their State Bar Council under section 3(2), and each State Bar Council elects one of its members to the Bar Council of India. The election to the national body is indirect.

3. Which function of the Bar Council of India is the source of the rules on professional conduct? Section 7(1)(b), to lay down standards of professional conduct and etiquette for advocates, exercised through the rule-making power in section 49(1)(c).

4. State the composition of the legal education committee and why it is unusual. Ten members under section 10(2)(b), of whom five are elected by the Council from amongst its members and five are co-opted persons who are not members of the Council. The co-option brings people from outside the Council, typically academics, onto the body that sets the standards of legal education.

5. When does an elected member of a Bar Council vacate office? Under section 10B, if the Council declares him to have been absent without sufficient excuse from three consecutive meetings, or if his name is for any cause removed from the roll of advocates, or if he is otherwise disqualified under a rule made by the Bar Council of India.

6. Which provisions did the Constitution Bench rely on in Bonnie Foi to uphold the All India Bar Examination? Section 7(1)(g), general supervision and control over State Bar Councils, together with the residuary clauses (l) and (m), the opening words of section 24(1) making it subject to rules made under the Act, and decisively section 49(1)(ag), which covers the class or category of persons entitled to be enrolled as advocates.

7. Does the Bar Council of India itself punish an advocate for misconduct? No. Its disciplinary committee does, constituted under section 9, exercising the jurisdiction in sections 36, 36B and 37. The Council as a body has functions under section 7, not a punitive jurisdiction.