A Bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe ruled that while banks are free to remove lawyers from their own panels if dissatisfied with their services, they cannot publicly brand them as professionally incompetent or negligent by circulating their names to other banks.
The Court held that questions relating to an advocate’s professional conduct fall exclusively within the jurisdiction of the Bar Councils under the Advocates Act.
“Banks have the choice of disengaging a legal professional and also to remove his/her name from the panel if the services are not up to the mark, but an action in the nature of public declaration to all other banks about the conduct, competency or incompetency of an advocate is clearly beyond their power and jurisdiction and clearly illegal,” the Court said.
A Bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe ruled that while banks are free to remove lawyers from their own panels if dissatisfied with their services, they cannot publicly brand them as professionally incompetent or negligent by circulating their names to other banks.
The Court held that questions relating to an advocate’s professional conduct fall exclusively within the jurisdiction of the Bar Councils under the Advocates Act.
“Banks have the choice of disengaging a legal professional and also to remove his/her name from the panel if the services are not up to the mark, but an action in the nature of public declaration to all other banks about the conduct, competency or incompetency of an advocate is clearly beyond their power and jurisdiction and clearly illegal,” the Court said.
