IMPORTANT POINT
To have discipline and maintain purity of profession complaints made by concerned litigants are required to be disposed of at the earliest so that litigants may continue to have faith in profession and in its system.

ORDER :

1. The present application has been filed for extension of time for compliance of our Order dated 01.08.2022, with affidavit and a chart reflecting state wise number of cases pending inquiry. Having gone through the chart, it appears that in most of the cases/complaints/inquiries transferred to the Bar Council of India (BCI), the concerned Inquiry Officers appointed by the BCI have not submitted the Report and consequently the respective complaints are not disposed of.

2. Shri Manan Kumar Mishra, learned Senior Advocate and Chairman of Bar Council of India prays for extension of time to complete the inquiries/complaints transferred to the Bar Council of India by a further period of three months. He has also stated that for expeditious disposal of the complaints received by the Bar Council of India and/or transferred to the Bar Council of India and to facilitate the parties, the hearing of the respective complainants shall be conducted by having Circuit Benches in the respective States. As a last chance, we extend the time to dispose of the complaints received by the BCI and/or transferred to the BCI upto 31st December, 2022. The BCI must decide and dispose of the complaints received and/or transferred to the BCI at the earliest keeping in mind that as such before the Bar Council of the concerned States, the complaints were pending for more than one year and they were required to be transferred in exercise of power under Section 36(b) of the Advocates Act, 1961.

3. To have the discipline and maintain the purity of the profession the complaints made by the concerned litigants are required to be dispose of at the earliest so that the litigants may continue to have the faith in the profession and in its system.

4. One another grievance which is voiced by the applicant/party in person that despite the fact that the complaints are pending for more than one year, the concerned State Bar Councils have not transferred the cases to the Bar Council of India. The grievance which is voiced is with respect to Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa. Without expressing anything on the correctness of the statement, we once again reiterate our earlier order and direct that all concerned State Bar Councils, before whom the complaints are pending for more than one year from the date of filing shall stand transferred to the Bar Council of India, as ordered earlier. The Bar council of India must ensure an early disposal of those cases which are transferred and/or deemed to have been transferred by our earlier order and the present order.

5. Put up on 09.01.2023.