Reprieve for lawyers who offer bad advice

In a significant ruling pertaining to the professional liability of lawyers, the Supreme Court of India recently stayed an order passed in 2007 by the country’s apex consumer court, the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC), which held that advocates should be covered by the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, and should be taken to consumer courts if the services provided to clients have been deficient or unsatisfactory.

In its appeal before the Supreme Court, the petitioner, the Bar of Indian Lawyers (BIL), contended that the order of the NCDRC was not maintainable, since consumer forums that followed summary proceedings could not decide on a lawyer’s alleged negligence. BIL claimed that the commission failed to make an important distinction between the professions of law and medicine. Calling the decision to subject lawyers to the jurisdiction of consumer courts “illegal”, BIL asserted that the commission had committed a grave error in law by encroaching upon the jurisdiction of the bar council, a statutory body entitled to handle complaints against advocates.

The update of court judgments is compiled by Bhasin & Co, Advocates, a corporate law firm based in New Delhi. The authors can be contacted at lbhasin@bhasinco.in, lbhasin@vsnl.com or lbhasin@gmail.com. Readers should not act on the basis of this information without seeking professional legal advice.