Safeguard professional ethics: Justice Banumathi

Justice R. Banumathi, a judge of the Supreme Court, on Saturday
 said cases of violations of code of conduct should be dealt with
 stringently and it was the responsibility of the bar council to 
safeguard professional ethics and reinforce the people’s
 faith in the profession

DC CORRESPONDENT | November 09, 2014, 05.11 am IST

Chennai: Justice R. Banumathi, a judge of the Supreme Court, on Saturday said cases of violations of code of conduct should be dealt with stringently and it was the responsibility of the bar council to safeguard professional ethics and reinforce the people’s faith in the profession. After inaugurating the disciplinary committee halls in the new Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry (BCTP) building, Justice Banumathi said the function of the state bar council was to maintain a roll of advocates and to lay down standards and procedures to be followed.

 

In the profession of law, the advocates had a dual responsibility: to uphold the interest of their clients and to efficiently conduct themselves as officers of the court. It becomes indispensable for advocates to adhere to the highest standards of probity and honour. The law profession was a noble calling and ethics ought to play an instrumental role in it, she added.

 

She said the Advocates Act vested the power of enquiry into cases of misconduct against advocates in the disciplinary committees of the bar council. The decision of the committees must be to enforce at least a minimal level of integrity in the profession. In cases of minor aberrations, a liberal view may be adopted and recourse taken to warnings and censures.

 

Earlier, Justice C. Nagappan, a judge of the Supreme Court, who inaugurated the auditorium in the new BCTP building, said with members of the bar moving away from the true spirit of the profession and regarding it more a business, some aberrations had resulted. This attitude had to be corrected.

 

New entrants to the profession had their own economic compulsions which was contributing to the change in attitude, he said. But the basic needs of a meritorious entrant ought to be provided for to encourage him to withstand the rigours of life at the threshold of his career.