42. Powers of disciplinary committee
(1) The disciplinary committee of the Bar Council shall have the same powers as are vested in a
Civil Court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (5 of 1908), in respect of the following matters, namely,:
(a) summoning and enforcing the attendance of any person and examining him
on oath;
(b) requiring discovery and production of any documents;
(c) receiving evidence on affidavits;
(d) requisitioning any public record or copies thereof from any court or office;
(e) issuing commissions for the examination of witnesses or documents;
(f) any other matter which may be prescribed:
PROVIDED that no such disciplinary committee shall have the right to require the
attendance of:
(a) any presiding officer of a court except with the previous sanction of the High
Court to which such court is subordinate;
(b) any officer of a Revenue Court except with the previous sanction of the State
Government.
(2) All proceedings before a disciplinary committee of a Bar Council shall be deemed to be
judicial proceedings within the meaning of sections 193 and 228 of the Indian Penal Code,
1860 (45 of 1860), and every such disciplinary committee shall be deemed to be a Civil
Court for the purpose of sections 480, 482 and 485 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (5 of 1898).
(3) For the purposes of exercising any of the powers conferred by sub-section (1), a disciplinary
committee may send to any civil court in the territories to which this Act extends, any summons
or other process, for the attendance of a witness or the production of a document required by
the committee or any commission which it desires to issue, and the Civil Court shall cause such
process to be served or such commission to be issued, as the case may be, and may enforce any
such process as if it were a process for attendance or production before itself.
2[ (4) Notwithstanding the absence of the Chairman or any member of a disciplinary committee on
a date fixed for the hearing of a case before it, the disciplinary committee may, if it so thinks
fit, hold or continue the proceedings on the date so fixed and no such proceedings and no order
made by the disciplinary committee in any such proceedings shall be invalid merely by reason of
the absence of the Chairman or member thereof on any such date:
PROVIDED that no final orders of the nature referred to in sub-section (3) of section 35 can be made
in any proceedings unless the Chairman and other members of the disciplinary committee are present.
(5) Where no final orders of the nature referred to in sub-section (3) of section 35 can be made in
any proceeding in accordance with the opinion of the Chairman and the members of a disciplinary
committee either for want of majority opinion amongst themselves or otherwise, the case, with their
opinion thereon, shall be laid before the Chairman of the Bar Council concerned or if the Chairman of
the Bar Council is acting as the Chairman or a member of the disciplinary committee, before the Vice-Chairman
of the Bar Council, and the said Chairman or the Vice-Chairman of the Bar Council, as the case may be,
after such hearing as he thinks fit, shall deliver his opinion and the final order of the disciplinary
committee shall follow such opinion].
COMMENTS
The Disciplinary Committee has been conferred powers vested in a civil court in respect of certain
matters including summoning and enforcing attendance of any person and examining him on oath, the
Act which enjoins disciplinary committee to afford an opportunity of hearing to the advocate does
not prescribe the procedure to be followed at the hearing. However, as far as the procedure followed
by the State Bar Council at the enquiry is concemed, in order to enable the concerned advocate to
defend himself properly, an appropriate specific charge is required to be framed.-AIR 1989 SC 245.
1[42A. Powers of Bar Council of India and other committees
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].
43. Cost of proceedings before a disciplinary committee
The disciplinary committee to a Bar Council may, make such order as to the cost of any proceedings
before it as it may deem fit and any such order shall be executable as if it were an order:
(a) in the case of an order of the disciplinary committee of the Bar Council of
India, of the Supreme Court;
(b) in the case of an order of the disciplinary committee of a State Bar Council,
of the High Court.
COMMENTS
Under s. 43(b) an order for costs passed by the Disciplinary Committee of State Bar Council is, by
fiction, made executable as if it were an order of the High Court. But it is not an order passed by
the High Court. Such an order, however, is to be treated like, an order passed by the court and to
that order s. 38, CPC would apply. It is for the party to apply for execution before the disciplinary
committee itself and then have the decree transferred to such a court as an execute it.-AIR 1974 Raj 20.
44. Review of orders by disciplinary committee
The disciplinary committee of a Bar Council may of its own motion or otherwise review any order 1[within sixty
days of the date of that order] passed by it under this Chapter:
PROVIDED that no such order of review of the disciplinary committee of a State
Bar Council shall have effect unless it has been approved by the Bar Council of India.
COMMENTS
The powers of review are not circumscribed by the Act. The analogy of the CPC must not be carried too far.
Such powers may be exercised in a suitable case for or against an advocate even after the matter has gone
through the hands of the disciplinary committee at some stage or even through the Supreme Court. -AIR 1971 SC 107.
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