Disciplinary Committee of the Bar Council of India — Organisation and powers and procedure

The Bar Council of India sits in Delhi, far from the State Bar Councils that keep the rolls. Yet a complaint filed against a Mumbai advocate can end up on its table — sometimes because a State committee sat on the case too long, sometimes because the State Council itself asked for help, sometimes because the advocate is not on any State roll at all. What is this body, how is it made up, and what can it do that a State committee cannot?

In two minutes

The Bar Council of India’s disciplinary committee (constituted under section 9, three members like a State committee) has three jobs: it tries advocates not on any State roll (section 36(1)), it can withdraw and decide cases pending before State committees (section 36(2)), and it hears appeals from State committees (section 37) — with the same four punishments, civil-court powers and review power as a State committee.

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