The Advocates Act, 1961: salient features and the Bar Councils

Professional Ethics · Unit I · Topic 4 of 18 · 5 min read

The structure of the Advocates Act chapter by chapter, the constitution and functions of the State Bar Councils and the Bar Council of India, senior advocates, pre-audience, the single class of advocates and the 2023 amendment on touts.

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On this page

1. Object and background
2. The structure of the Act
3. Salient features
4. Functions of a State Bar Council (section 6)
5. Functions of the Bar Council of India (section 7)
6. Senior advocates
How this is examined

Cases checked to exist. Read the judgment before quoting a holding.

Every case cited here has been checked to exist — the citation resolves and names the right parties. The propositions attributed to each case have not been verified line by line against the judgment. Case names link through to the full judgment: read it before quoting a holding in an examination answer, and never carry a proposition from notes into court on trust.

The examinable core. “State the salient features of the Advocates Act, 1961” appears in nearly every paper (June 2017, December 2017, June 2018, December 2018). Organise the answer by the Act’s own chapters, and give the section number for every feature. “Functions of the Bar Council of India” (December 2017) is answered from section 7.

1. Object and background

The Act was passed to “amend and consolidate the law relating to legal practitioners and to provide for the constitution of Bar Councils and an All-India Bar”. It implemented the recommendations of the All India Bar Committee (1951) and the Fourteenth Law Commission Report (1958). Before 1961 there were several classes of practitioners (advocates, vakils, pleaders, mukhtars, attorneys) under different laws, and discipline lay with the High Courts.

2. The structure of the Act

Chapter I (sections 1–2): preliminary and definitions.
Chapter II (sections 3–15): Bar Councils.
Chapter III (sections 16–28): admission and enrolment of advocates.
Chapter IV (sections 29–34): right to practise.
Chapter V (sections 35–44): conduct of advocates, disciplinary proceedings and appeals.
Chapter VI (sections 45–52): miscellaneous, including penalty for illegal practice, rule-making and repeal.
Chapter VII (sections 53–60): temporary and transitional provisions.

3. Salient features

An autonomous Bar. State Bar Councils (section 3) and the Bar Council of India (section 4) are bodies corporate, elected by advocates. The Advocate-General is an ex officio member of the State Bar Council; the Attorney-General and Solicitor-General are ex officio members of the Bar Council of India.
One class of practitioners. From the appointed day only advocates are entitled to practise law (section 29), and no one else may practise in any court (section 33).
Two classes of advocates. Senior advocates and other advocates (section 16). A senior advocate is designated, with his consent, by the Supreme Court or a High Court by reason of ability, standing at the Bar or special knowledge or experience in law.
A State roll and uniform qualifications. Each State Bar Council maintains a roll (section 17); the qualifications and disqualifications for enrolment are uniform (sections 24 and 24A); a name may be transferred between rolls (section 18).
A right to practise throughout India (section 30).
Pre-audience (section 23): the Attorney-General, Solicitor-General, Additional Solicitors-General, Advocates-General, then senior advocates.
Self-regulated discipline. Disciplinary committees (section 9) try complaints of professional or other misconduct (section 35), with appeals to the Bar Council of India (section 37) and the Supreme Court (section 38).
Rule-making by the Bar Council of India (section 49), including standards of professional conduct and etiquette (section 49(1)(c)), the source of Part VI of the Bar Council of India Rules.
Penalty for illegal practice (section 45): imprisonment up to six months.
Touts (section 45A, inserted by the Advocates (Amendment) Act, 2023, in force from 30 September 2024): High Courts and District Judges may frame and publish lists of persons who habitually act as touts.
Repeal (section 50) of the Indian Bar Councils Act, 1926 and the relevant parts of the Legal Practitioners Act, 1879.

4. Functions of a State Bar Council (section 6)

to admit persons as advocates on its roll, and to prepare and maintain the roll;
to entertain and determine cases of misconduct against advocates on its roll;
to safeguard the rights, privileges and interests of advocates on its roll;
to promote the growth of Bar Associations for welfare schemes;
to promote law reform, hold seminars and publish legal journals;
to organise legal aid to the poor;
to manage its funds, provide for elections, and visit and inspect universities on the direction of the Bar Council of India.

5. Functions of the Bar Council of India (section 7)

to lay down standards of professional conduct and etiquette for advocates;
to lay down the procedure for its own disciplinary committee and those of the State Bar Councils;
to safeguard the rights, privileges and interests of advocates;
to promote and support law reform;
to deal with matters referred to it by a State Bar Council;
to exercise general supervision and control over State Bar Councils;
to promote legal education and lay down its standards in consultation with universities and State Bar Councils, and to recognise universities whose law degree qualifies for enrolment;
to conduct seminars, organise legal aid, manage its funds and provide for elections.

Its powers of supervision are backed by section 48A (revision of State Bar Council orders from which no appeal lies) and section 48B (directions to State Bar Councils). Its rule-making power under section 49 was held wide enough to support a qualifying examination in Bar Council of India v. Bonnie Foi Law College, 2023 INSC 116, but not wide enough to impose an age limit for enrolment: Indian Council of Legal Aid and Advice v. Bar Council of India, 1995 INSC 41, (1995) 1 SCC 732.

6. Senior advocates

Section 16(3) lets the Bar Council of India restrict the practice of senior advocates. Chapter I of Part VI of its Rules provides that a senior advocate shall not file a vakalat or act without an advocate on record, shall not draft pleadings or affidavits or do conveyancing, and shall not accept a brief directly from a client. The process of designation was regulated by guidelines in Indira Jaising v. Supreme Court of India (2017), modified in Indira Jaising v. Supreme Court of India, 2023 INSC 524, (2023) 8 SCC 1, and revisited again in Jitender @ Kalla v. State (NCT of Delhi), 2025 INSC 667, which reconsidered the point-based assessment and the role of the Permanent Committee under section 16(2).

Pending reform. Draft amendments to the Advocates Act have been circulated in recent years. None has been enacted. Answer on the Act as it stands, with the 2023 amendment.

How this is examined

The “salient features” answer should run: object and background; the chapter plan; then ten or so features, each tied to a section (sections 3, 4, 16, 17, 23, 24, 29, 30, 35–38, 45, 45A, 49). For “functions of the Bar Council of India”, reproduce section 7 clause by clause and add sections 48A, 48B and 49, with Bonnie Foi on the scope of the rule-making power.

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