The legal profession and its responsibilities - Professional Ethics

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On this page

1. Profession, not trade
2. How the Indian Bar developed
3. The responsibilities of the profession
4. Why the monopoly carries a duty
5. The current statutory position
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. A question on the legal profession wants three things: what makes law a profession (and why that matters), how the profession was organised in India before and after 1961, and the responsibilities that come with the monopoly the State has given advocates. The syllabus objective puts it in one line: society has trusted a learned body to regulate itself, and the Bar must justify that trust.

1. Profession, not trade

A profession is an occupation that rests on specialised learning, is carried on for the service of others, and is governed by its own code of conduct enforced by its own members. Three features separate it from a business:

Learning and qualification. Entry is controlled. Only a person with a recognised law degree, admitted on a State roll, may practise (sections 24 and 29 of the Advocates Act, 1961).
Service before profit. The fee is earned, but the duty to the court and to justice ranks above the fee. That is why an advocate may not stipulate for a share of the result (Rule 20 of the Bar Council of India Rules, Part VI, Chapter II), may not advertise (Rule 36) and may not carry on a business (Rule 47).
Self-regulation. Advocates are disciplined by Bar Councils elected by advocates, not by the executive. The disciplinary committees of the State Bar Councils and of the Bar Council of India decide complaints of misconduct (sections 35 to 38).

The Supreme Court has recently restated the point. In Bar of Indian Lawyers v. D.K. Gandhi PS National Institute of Communicable Diseases, 2024 INSC 410, it held that the legal profession is sui generis, that an advocate works under a contract of personal service with a large degree of direct control by the client, and that a complaint of deficiency in an advocate’s services is therefore not maintainable under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. The client’s remedies lie elsewhere: a complaint to the Bar Council for misconduct, or a civil action.

2. How the Indian Bar developed

Mayor’s Courts (1726). The Charter of 1726 set up Mayor’s Courts in the Presidency towns, but there was no organised class of trained lawyers before them.
Supreme Court at Calcutta (1774). The Regulating Act, 1773 and the Charter of 1774 empowered the new Supreme Court to enrol advocates and attorneys. Only English barristers and attorneys could appear.
Bengal Regulation VII of 1793. The first attempt to create a regular profession of vakils in the Company’s courts, with enrolment and a fee scale.
Legal Practitioners Act, 1879. Consolidated the law on pleaders, mukhtars and revenue agents, and gave High Courts control over their enrolment and discipline.
Indian Bar Councils Act, 1926. Created Bar Councils for the High Courts, but they were advisory: discipline remained with the High Court, and the multiple classes of practitioners survived.
All India Bar Committee (1951), chaired by S.R. Das J., and the Fourteenth Report of the Law Commission (1958) recommended a unified Bar, an All-India Bar Council and State Bar Councils with disciplinary powers.
Advocates Act, 1961. Gave effect to those recommendations: one class of practitioners called advocates (section 29), State Bar Councils and the Bar Council of India (sections 3 and 4), a common right to practise throughout India (section 30), and self-regulation of discipline (Chapter V).

3. The responsibilities of the profession

The Preamble to Chapter II of Part VI of the Bar Council of India Rules states the starting point: an advocate must at all times conduct himself in a manner befitting his status as an officer of the court, a privileged member of the community and a gentleman, bearing in mind that what may be lawful and moral for a person who is not a member of the Bar may still be improper for an advocate. The responsibilities can be grouped as follows.

To the court. To assist the court in reaching a just decision: candour, respect, no improper influence, no misleading statement of fact or law.
To the client. To uphold his interests fearlessly by all fair and honourable means (Rule 15), to keep his confidences (section 132 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, earlier section 126 of the Indian Evidence Act), and to account for his money (Rules 25 to 30).
To society. To ensure that no person goes undefended. A Bar association resolution that its members will not appear for a particular accused is against professional ethics: A.S. Mohammed Rafi v. State of Tamil Nadu, 2010 INSC 851, (2011) 1 SCC 688. Free legal aid to the poor is described by Rule 46 as one of the highest obligations an advocate owes to society.
To the profession. To maintain its dignity: no touting, no advertising, no undercutting of fees (Rule 38), no appearance against a colleague’s vakalat without his consent (Rule 39), and training of juniors without charging them (Rule 45).

4. Why the monopoly carries a duty

Section 33 says that, except as provided by law, no one other than an enrolled advocate is entitled to practise in any court. Section 45 makes illegal practice punishable with imprisonment up to six months. The State has thus given advocates a monopoly over a public service, the administration of justice. The price of that monopoly is accountability. The Supreme Court in Bar Council of India v. A.K. Balaji, 2018 INSC 235, (2018) 5 SCC 379, read “practise the profession of law” to include non-litigation work such as giving opinions and drafting, so that the same regulatory regime covers advocates who never enter a courtroom, and held that foreign lawyers and firms cannot practise Indian law in India except on the terms the Act allows.

Do not overstate the consumer law point. Bar of Indian Lawyers held only that advocates’ services are outside the Consumer Protection Act. It did not say advocates are unaccountable. The disciplinary jurisdiction under section 35 and the ordinary law of contract and tort remain.

5. The current statutory position

The Advocates Act, 1961 remains the governing statute. The Advocates (Amendment) Act, 2023, in force from 30 September 2024, inserted section 45A, which lets High Courts and District Judges frame and publish lists of touts, and repealed what was left of the Legal Practitioners Act, 1879. Touting had been dealt with under section 36 of the 1879 Act until then.

How this is examined

“Discuss the legal profession and its responsibilities” was set in December 2018, and “Explain the significance of the legal profession” in December 2017. Write the answer in four parts: the meaning of a profession and its three marks; a short history from 1774 to 1961; the responsibilities grouped under court, client, society and profession, each with a rule number; and a closing paragraph on the monopoly and the accountability that comes with it. Quote the Preamble to Chapter II, which earns marks on its own, and cite Mohammed Rafi for the duty not to boycott an accused.