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Professional Ethics

Semester 4 · 18 topics in 5 units

Past question papers for Professional Ethics

Unit I 6 topics

  1. The legal profession and its responsibilitiesWhy law is a profession and not a trade, how the Indian Bar grew from the Mayor's Courts to the Advocates Act, 1961, and the responsibilities an advocate owes to court, client, society and the profession itself.6 min
  2. The equipment of the lawyer and the seven lamps of advocacyWhat a lawyer needs to practise well, in knowledge, skill and character, and Judge Parry's seven lamps of advocacy: honesty, courage, industry, wit, eloquence, judgment and fellowship.5 min
  3. Conduct in court, professional conduct in general, and the privileges of an advocateHow an advocate must behave before the court and outside it, the restrictions on other employment, and the rights and privileges the law gives an advocate: the right to practise, pre-audience, professional privilege and freedom from being summoned over a client's affairs.6 min
  4. The Advocates Act, 1961: salient features and the Bar CouncilsThe 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.5 min
  5. Admission and enrolment of advocatesWho may be enrolled under section 24, the disqualifications in section 24A, the procedure before the enrolment committee, the enrolment fee after Gaurav Kumar, the All India Bar Examination, and the sleeping-partner problem solved.6 min
  6. Disciplinary proceedings against advocates: sections 35 to 44How a complaint of misconduct travels from the State Bar Council to the Bar Council of India and the Supreme Court: reference, hearing, punishments, the one-year rule, appeals, review and stay, with the appeal problem solved.6 min

Unit II 5 topics

  1. Duties of an advocate to the courtRules 1 to 10 of the Bar Council of India Rules, Part VI, Chapter II, the duty of candour and the duty not to obstruct the court, with the problem of an advocate who wants to discuss a pending case privately with the judge.5 min
  2. Bar-Bench relationsWhy the Bar and the Bench need each other, the rules of conduct on both sides that keep the relationship working, what goes wrong (strikes, insults, judicial discourtesy), and the problem of an advocate who abstains because of a strike call.5 min
  3. Duties of an advocate to the clientRules 11 to 33 of the Bar Council of India Rules grouped by theme: accepting and keeping a brief, loyalty and confidence, fees, the client's money, and conflicts, with the money-lending and file-handover problems solved.6 min
  4. Duties to the opponent, to colleagues and to the professionRules 34 to 39 of the Bar Council of India Rules: dealing with the other side only through its advocate, keeping promises, the ban on soliciting and advertising (and what a website may show), unauthorised practice, undercutting and appearing in place of a colleague.5 min
  5. Duty to the self, and duty to the public and the StateWhat an advocate owes himself (independence, learning, integrity, health and a clean practice) and what he owes the public and the State: free legal aid under Rule 46 and the Legal Services Authorities Act, defending the unpopular accused, fairness as prosecutor, law reform and loyalty to the Constitution.5 min

Unit III 4 topics

  1. Contempt of court: civil and criminal contemptThe constitutional source of the contempt power, the definitions of civil and criminal contempt in section 2 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, scandalising the court and fair criticism, with the shoe-throwing advocate problem solved.6 min
  2. Contempt: defences, procedure, punishment and contempt by judgesWhat is not contempt under sections 3 to 7 and 13 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, including truth as a defence since 2006, how proceedings begin and are heard, punishment and apology, the one-year limitation, appeals, and contempt by judges, with the bribery-complaint problem solved.7 min
  3. Professional misconduct: the leading Supreme Court casesThe meaning of professional misconduct and the prescribed judgments from In re D (1955) to Chandra Shekhar Soni (1983): misappropriation in P.J. Ratnam, touting in Dabholkar, the Bar Council's standing to appeal, and the reformative sentence in V.C. Rangadurai.6 min
  4. Advocates, contempt and strikes: the leading casesThe second half of the prescribed judgments: In re an Advocate (1988) on the standard of proof, Vinay Chandra Mishra (1995), Supreme Court Bar Association (1998) on who may suspend an advocate, Harish Uppal (2002) on strikes, and R.K. Anand (2009) on the power to bar appearance.6 min

Unit IV 1 topic

  1. Selected opinions of the Bar Council of India's Disciplinary CommitteeHow to read and use the fifty prescribed BCI opinions: what a DC Appeal and a BCI Transferred Case are, the procedure the committee follows, the recurring kinds of misconduct and punishment, how the Supreme Court has treated BCI orders, and the compromise-and-retained-money problem solved.6 min

Unit V 2 topics

  1. Accountancy for lawyers: why accounts are kept and what the rules requireWhy an advocate must keep accounts (the client's money, his own fees, tax and proof of honesty), the Bar Council of India Rules 25 to 32 on client accounts, the books an advocate maintains, and the books-of-account and audit provisions of the Income-tax Act, 2025.5 min
  2. Bookkeeping for lawyers: double entry, journal, ledger, cash book, trial balance and final accountsThe elementary bookkeeping the syllabus requires: meaning and objects, the double-entry rules of debit and credit, the journal, ledger and cash book with an advocate's entries worked out, the client account, the trial balance, closing entries and final accounts, and the commercial arithmetic a lawyer uses.7 min