Remedies against the order of punishment

Your neighbour’s advocate cousin has just been suspended for a year by the State Bar Council. The family panics: is that the end? It is not. Like a decree in a civil suit, a disciplinary order can be taken higher, and the Advocates Act 1961 builds the whole ladder — appeal to the Bar Council of India, a second appeal to the Supreme Court, a stay, and even a review. But each rung has a clock, and the clock is short. What are the rungs, and who can climb them?

In two minutes

An advocate punished by a State Bar Council’s disciplinary committee has a statutory appeal to the Bar Council of India within sixty days (section 37), and a further appeal to the Supreme Court within sixty days of the next order (section 38); the complainant and the Advocate-General have rights of appeal too, and a stay must be asked for, since appeals do not stay the order by themselves (section 40).

The rest of this chapter

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