Legal Ethics
Legal Ethics
Legal Ethics
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Table of contents
Introduction
Legal ethics
Ethics of lawyers profession
Advocates act 1961
Provision of advocates act 1961
Code of Conduct Prescribed For Advocate
Contempt of court as professional misconduct
Judicial decisions
Procedure to be followed on notice of misconduct
Critique
Conclusion
Bibliography
INTRODUCTION
Legal ethics, accountability of lawyers and bench-bar relations is one of the
four practical training papers included in the new syllabus for the LL.B degree. It
requires the students to study thoroughly the various concepts like court, contempt
of court, court of record, legal ethics, professional or other misconduct, etc. It
requires the students to study the provisions of the Advocates Act, Contempt of
court Act and also of the Constitution relating to the contempt of court.
Legal ethics
The administration of justice is the process and structure which allows conflicts
between parties to be settled by a body dedicated to that purpose.
According to Learned C.L. Anand 1 a sound system of the administration of
justice
should
possess
three
ingredients,
namely
well
planned body of laws based on wise concepts of social justice, a judicial hierarchy
comprised of theBench and the Bar, learned in the law and inspired by high
principles of professional conduct and existence of suitable generation to ensure
fair trial. Thus, the legal profession is one of the three ingredients that play an
important role in the administration of justice. The Lawyers assist the
court in arriving at a correct judgment. without the assistance of the lawyers it
would be a super h u m a n t a s k for the judge to arrive at a satisfactory judgment.
Thus, an advocate renders assistance to the courts in the administration of justice
1 C.L. Anand, General Principles of Legal Ethics,39 /Law Books Co., Allahabad, 1965
and also gives professional advice to members of the public who require their
services.
Legal profession has been created by the state for the public good and
not for private gain. An advocate is an officer of the court. The court acts on
his statements. Consequently, the essence of the profession lies in the three things:
I.
II.
III.
2 C.L. Anand, General Principles of Legal Ethics, 30 /Law Book Co., Allahabad, 1965
3 C.L.Anand, General Principles of Legal Ethics, 63(/Law Book Co., Allahabad, 1965).
Ethics is to maintain the honour and dignity of the Law Profession, to secure a
spirit of friendly co-operation between the bench and the brain the promotion of
the highest standards of justice, to establish honorable and fair dealing of the
counsel with his client, opponent and witness, to establish a spirit of brother-hood
in the bar itself and to secure that lawyers discharge their responsibilities to the
community generally.
Actually the legal profession is a profession of great honour. It has been created
not for private gain but for public good. It is a partner with the judiciary in the
administration of justice. An advocate is an officer of the court. The court acts on
his statements. To maintain the honour of the legal profession, the Advocate Act
has been passed and the Bar Councils have been established. The State Bar
Councils and the Bar Council of India can punish the advocate for the professional
or other misconduct. From the preamble of the rules made by the Bar Council of
India it becomes clear that these rules contain canons of conduct and etiquette
adopted as general guides and the specific mentioned thereof should not be
construed as a denial of the existence of other equally imperative, though not
specifically mentioned
Ethics of lawyers profession
A lawyers profession is meant to be a divine or sacred profession by all means. In
every profession, there are certain professional ethics that need to be followed by
every person who is into such a profession. But there is the fact that professional
misconduct is a common aspect, not only in other professions but also in advocacy
also. In simple terms, it means certain acts done by the persons which seem to be
unfit for the profession as well as which are against certain ethics in this field
of the
expression
professional or
other
misconduct. The
Bar Council of India has made several rules so as to specify the duties of an
advocate towards the court, client, opponent and colleagues, etc.
Some of the instances of professional misconduct are as follows:
Dereliction of duty
Professional negligence
Misappropriation
Changing sides
Contempt of court and improper behaviour before a Magistrate
Furnishing false information
Giving improper advice
Misleading the clients in court
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justification for restricting their natural meaning. Section 49 of the Advocate Act
empowers the Bar Council of India to frame rules and standards of professional
misconduct. Under the Act, no person has a right to make advertisement or
soliciting; it is against advocates code of ethics. He is also not entitled to any
advertisement through circulars, personal communications or interviews, he is not
entitled to demand fees for training and to use name/service for unauthorized
purposes.6
interests of the client by fair and honourable means without regard to any
unpleasant
consequences
to
himself
or
any
other
person.
The above are only few important code of conduct to be observed by an advocate
practicing in India. According to Justice Abbot Parry, there are seven important
qualities that a lawyer should possess, he call these qualities as seven lamps of
advocacy, they are; Honesty, Courage, Industry, Wit, eloquence, Judgement, and
Fellowship. Apart from that the panchsheel of the bar are Honesty, Industry,
Justice, Service and Philisophy and Panchsheel of the bench according to Sri ram
Kishore Rande are, Impartiality, Independence, Integrity and Industry, Judicial
activism and Prayer. Among the various duties of the advocates like, duties to
client, court, public, colleagues and self, selected points can be picked up and
arranged according to the due and relative importance and are called as ten
commandments of advocates they are:
The rules laid down by the Bar Council of India forms the code of conduct for
advocates and in broad sense any violation of such rules or code of conduct can be
termed as professional misconduct. The scope of the term has been still widened by
the
Supreme
Court
in
various
decisions.
contempt of court, the court held that if any advocate or legal practitioner is found
guilty of the act of contempt of court, he/she may be imprisoned for six years and
may be suspended from practicing as an advocate (In re Vinay Chandra
Mishra)8The court also held that license of the advocate to practice a legal
profession might be canceled by the Supreme Court or High Court in the exercise
of the contempt jurisdiction.
Contempt of court is a serious challenge to the majesty of law. Sometimes it is
committed in ignorance i.e, the contemnor has no knowledge as to the meaning of
the contempt. Consequently, a definition of the expression contempt of court is of
much utility, but unfortunately there is no clear and definite definition of this
expression. The Contempt of Court Act, 1971 defines it as a civil contempt or
criminal contempt .Actually, it is not definition but classification of contempt of
court. Actually, contempt of court cannot be defined exhaustively but a workable
definition is possible. It is an act or omission which interferes or tends to interfere
with the administration of justice, provided that if the interference with the
administration of justice is in the form of disobedience to the order of the court or
breach of undertaking given to the court, it will amount to contempt o court only
when the obedience or breach is willful. Civil contempt has been defined as
willful disobedience to any judgment, decree, direction, order, writ or other process
of a court or willful breach of an undertaking given to a court.
Criminal contempt of court means the publication of any matter or doing of any
other act which has resulted or likely to result in any one of the following
consequences-Scandalizes or tend to scandalize or lowers or tends to lower the
authority of any court; Prejudices or interferes or tends to interfere with, the due
course of any judicial proceeding; or Interferes or tends to interfere with or
obstruct or tends to obstruct the administration of justice in any manner e.g.
interference with the courts officers including the advocate discharging the
professional function, interference with the parties, interference with the witness,
abuse of the process of the court, etc. The contempt of court act makes provision in
respect of the punishment for the contempt of court. Section 12 of the act
provides that save or otherwise expressly provided in this act or in any other law, a
contempt of court may be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which
may extend to six months or with fine which may extend to 2000 rupees or with
both. The contempt of court Act provides remedies to the person charged with the
contempt of court against the order of punishment. According to section 12 of the
act the contemn or may tender apology to the court and if the court is satisfied that
it has been made with real feeling of repentance it may remit the punishment
awarded for the contempt.
Section 19 provides that an appeal shall lie as of right form any order or decision
of the high court in the exercise of its jurisdiction to punish for contempt(a) Where the order or decision is that of a single judge, to a Bench of not less than
two judges of the Court;
(b) Where the order or decision is that of a bench, to the Supreme Court: Provided
that where the order or decision is that of a judicial commission in any union
territory, such appeal shall lie to the Supreme Court
There are many other landmark judgments regarding the cases involving
professional misconduct of the advocates. In the case of V.C. Rangadurai v.
13
D.Gopalan9, the court looked into the matter of professional misconduct in such a
way that the decision was made in a humanitarian manner, considering the future
of the accused in this case. The court held that even so justice has a correctional
edge, a socially useful function, especially if the delinquent is too old to be
pardoned and too young to be disbarred. Therefore, a curative, not cruel
punishment has to be delivered in the social setting of the legal profession. The
court then gave the decision in such a way that it looked at each and every aspect
concerning the case as well as the parties concerned. It adopted a deterrent was of
justice mechanism so that the accused person is awarded certain punishments but
also provided a warning towards such other people who intend to commit acts of a
similar nature. The judgment turned out to be a landmark in cases concerning
professional misconduct as it delivered an effective judgment and but did not
jeopardize the future of the accused person. In various other cases like J.S. Jadhav
v. Musthafa Haji Muhammed Yusuf10, the court delivered the decision in such a
way that it created a notion in the minds of the wrongdoers that offenders will be
punished accordingly. In Sambhu Ram Yadav v. Hanuman Das Khatry 11, a
complaint was filed by the appellant against an advocate to the Bar Council of
Rajasthan, that while appearing in a suit as a counsel, he wrote a letter stating that
the concerned judge, before whom the suit is pending accepts bribes, and asked for
10 J.S Jadhav v. Musthafa Haji Muhammed Yusuf and ors 1993 AIR 1535
Rs. 10,000 to bribe and influence the judge to obtain a favourable order. The
Disciplinary Committee, holding that the advocate was guilty if misconduct,
stated that such an act made the advocate totally unfit to be a lawyer. The
Supreme Court, upholding the finding of the Rajasthan Bar Council held that the
legal profession is not a trade or business. Members belonging to the profession
have a particular duty to uphold the integrity of the profession and to discourage
corruption in order to ensure that justice is secured in a legal manner. The act of the
advocate was misconduct of the highest degree as it not only obstructed the
administration of justice, but eroded the reputation of the profession in the opinion
of
the
public.
proceedings
against
him.
It may be noted that in arriving at the decision in the case, the Supreme Court
carried out an over-view of the jurisprudence of the courts in the area of
misconduct of advocates. It reiterated that the term misconduct is incapable of a
precise definition. Broadly speaking, it envisages any instance of breach of
discipline. It means improper behavior, intentional wrongdoing or deliberate
violation of a rule of standard of behavior. The term may also include wrongful
intention, which is not a mere error of judgment. Therefore, misconduct, though
incapable of a precise definition, acquires its connotation from the context, the
delinquency in its performance and its effect on the discipline and the nature of
duty.
In N.G. Dastane v. Shrikant S. Shind 13, where the advocate of one of the parties
was asking for continuous adjournments to the immense inconvenience of the
opposite party, it was held by the Supreme Court that seeking adjournments for
postponing the examination of witnesses who were present without making other
arrangements for examining such witnesses is a dereliction of the duty that an
advocate
owed
to
the
Court,
amounting
to
misconduct.
Ultimately, as it has been upheld and reiterated that misconduct would cover any
activity or conduct which his professional brethren of good repute and competency
would reasonably regard as disgraceful or dishonourable. It may be noted that the
scope of misconduct is not restricted by technical interpretations of rules of
conduct. This was proven conclusively in the case of Bar Council of Maharashtra
v. M.V. Dahbolkar14 .The facts under consideration involved advocates positioning
themselves at the entrance to the Magistrates courts and rushing towards potential
litigants, often leading to an ugly scrimmage to snatch briefs and undercutting of
fees. The Disciplinary Committee of the state Bar Council found such behavior to
amount to professional misconduct, but on appeal to the Bar Council of India, it
was the Bar Council of India absolved them of all charges of professional
misconduct on the ground that the conduct did not contravene Rule 36 of the
Standards of Professional Conduct and Etiquette as the rule required solicitation of
work from a particular person with respect to a particular case, and this case did
not meet all the necessary criteria, and such method of solicitation could not
amount to misconduct. This approach of the Bar council of India was heavily
reprimanded by the Supreme Court. It was held that restrictive interpretation of the
relevant rule by splitting up the text does not imply that the conduct of the
advocates was warranted or justified. The standard of conduct of advocates flows
from the broad cannons of ethics and high tome of behavior. It was held that
professional ethics cannot be contained in a Bar Council rule nor in traditional
cant in the books but in new canons of conscience which will command the
member of the calling of justice to obey rules or morality and utility. Misconduct
of advocates should thus be understood in a context-specific, dynamic sense, which
captures the role of the advocate in the society at large.
15 www.legalservicesindia.com/.../professional-misconduct-of-lawyers-in-india-1665-1
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Conclusion
From the analysis of various cases and certain facts and circumstances, it will be
clear that unlike any other profession, advocacy is regarded as a noble profession
and professional ethics must be maintained. Courts have dealt with various cases of
professional misconduct wherein attempt of murder by the advocate towards his
client have also been reported. Hence, there must be interference from concerned
authorities so that persons with a criminal background are kept away from this
profession. Even though there are guidelines dealing with the social background of
the person enrolling in this profession, i.e. the person enrolling must be free from
any criminal cases, it does not prove that the person has a criminal nature of his
own. So Bar Council can implement certain rules and regulation so that the
conduct of the person who is showing criminal behaviour can be controlled strict
guidelines ensuring that the person no longer acts unlawfully against his
profession. There must be various career guidance and development programs
conducted by the Bar Council immediately after enrolment so that new legal
professionals they will be aware of the dos and dont of this profession and there
will be a better group of advocates in the coming decades.
The advocate, as an officer of the Court, also has the responsibility to render
services of sound quality. Lapses in services in the nature of absence when the
matters are called out, the filing of incomplete and inaccurate pleadings many
times even illegible and without personal check and verification, the non-payment
of court fees and process fees, the failure to remove office objections, the failure to
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take steps to serve the parties are not merely professional omission. They amount
to positive dis-service to the litigants and create embarrassing situation in the court
leading to avoidable unpleasantness and delay in the disposal of matters, and
detrimentally
affects
the
entire
judicial
system.
Furthermore, as the officers of the court the lawyers are required to uphold the
dignity of the judicial office and maintain a respectful attitude towards the Court.
This is because the Bar and the Bench form a noble and dynamic partnership
geared to the great social goal of administration of justice, and the mutual respect
of the Bar and the Bench is essential for maintaining cordial relations between the
two. It is the duty of an advocate to uphold the dignity and decorum of the Court
and must not do anything to bring the Court itself into disrepute, and ensure that at
no point of time, he oversteps the limits of propriety.
Bibliography
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to
advertise,
at http://news.indlaw.com/guest/columns/default.asp?abhinav
David L. Hudson, Bates participants reflect on landmark case,
at http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/analysis.aspx?id=14394
http:// en.wikipedia.org/Legal_Advertising
Singh Lalithakumar I., A View on Legal Profession, AIR 2006 (Jour.) 1.
Statement of Objects and Reasons, The Advocates Act, 1961.
Dictionaries:
1) H. Black, Blacks Law Dictionary (5th ed., St Paul: West Publishing Co., 1979)
1059.
2) The Concise Oxford Thesaurus compiled by Kirkpatrick Betty; Oxford
University Press.
3) Websters New English Dictionary; Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers Inc, 2nd
Edn 1995.
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