The main legal point established is that the Court found the respondent guilty of professional and other misconduct under the Chartered Accountants Act and recommended reprimand as the appropriate punishment.

JUDGMENT

Valmiki Sa Menezes, J. - This is a reference made to this Court under Section 21(5) of the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 (for short 'the Act') by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, New Delhi, (for short 'the Institute') for necessary orders to be passed in terms of Sub-Section 6 of Section 21 thereof.

2. It is the case of the petitioner that it received a complaint dated 11.01.1999 from one Santosh Kumar Surajbhan Goel from Pune alleging that the respondent Shri Nitin D. Desai, a Chartered Accountant registered with the Institute, had written a letter to members of the Poona Club Ltd., soliciting their clientele in the guise of canvassing for votes during the said club's Executive Committee elections.

It was the complainant's allegation that the respondent, under the guise of soliciting votes for his candidature to the post of Officer Bearer of the Executive Committee of the said club, had represented to members of that club that he was a proprietor of M/s. D.S. Desai and Company Limited, claiming that his firm has rendered dedicated services to several corporate clients whose names were stated in the said letter ; that the respondent had, by the said letter, actually solicited clients from amongst the members of the club, not only by advertising the names of companies claimed by him to be his client, but also claiming that the firm of which he purported to be the proprietor, had saved the club substantial tax by using his expertise with the income tax department. This, the complainant alleges, was a misconduct committed by the respondent in terms of the provisions of the Act.

3. The Institute, on receiving the complaint forwarded a copy of the complaint to the respondent under cover of its letter dated 06.05.1999, requesting the respondent to file his written statement/reply to the complaint, which the respondent filed before the petitioner on 20.01.2000. A rejoinder to the written statement came to be filed before the petitioner, by the complainant on 10.03.2000.

In his reply, the respondent has admitted to issuing letters to various members of the club but has denied that the contents of his letter amounted to soliciting clients, amongst members of the club. The respondent claims that the complaint was filed only due to rivalry between the respondent and the complainant, as the complainant had also offered his candidature to the Executive Committee of the club. It was further the defence of the respondent that the various statements set out by him in his letter were only to solicit votes from members of the club, and were necessitated by the fact that there were two persons by the name of 'Nitin Desai', contesting that election and he was desirous of clarifying his identity to the members of the club.

4. On considering the contents of the complaint, the written statement and the rejoinder, the petitioner, in terms of Regulation 12 (11) of the Chartered Accountants Regulations, 1988, in its meeting held in September 2003, arrived at a prima facie opinion that the respondent was guilty of profession and other misconduct and referred the case to the Disciplinary Committee constituted under the provisions of Section 21(1) of the Act, for conducting an inquiry into the complaint and submitting a Report.

5. The Disciplinary Committee issued notice to the complainant and to the respondent, and commenced hearing/enquiry into the complaint from 20.03.2014 and concluded the inquiry on 02.02.2005. During the course of the inquiry, both the complainant and respondent recorded their statements and were cross-examined. The inquiry culminated in the Disciplinary Committee submitting its Report dated 02.02.2005 to the petitioner - Institute, holding the complainant, guilty of misconduct, more specifically for the breach of Clause (6) of Part I of the First Schedule of the Code of Ethics applicable to the Chartered Accounts, under the scheme of the Act. The Disciplinary Committee was also of the opinion as recorded in its