The Supreme Court has upheld Bar Council of Rajasthan’s order to refuse enrolment on grounds of concealment of facts

A Supreme Court bench comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao and M R Shah, passed a judgment which upheld the State Bar Council of Rajasthan’s order to refuse enrolment in the Bar for concealment of facts. The appellant in this case was enrolled with the Bar Council of Himachal Pradesh, and had his enrolment transferred to the Bar Council of Rajasthan. Later on, the Bar Council of Rajasthan received a complaint that the original enrolment was done with suppression of facts. Subsequently his enrolment was cancelled by the State Bar Council and was confirmed by the Bar Council of India.

The reason for rejection of enrolment was that the appellant had concealed the fact that he was involved in a criminal case and was in the government service of Himachal Pradesh at that time. The bench noted: “Section 26 of the Advocates Act, 1961 confers power on the Bar Council of India to remove the name of a person who entered on the Roll of Advocates by misrepresentation. It is in exercise of this power that the enrollment of the Appellant was cancelled”.

The court also observed: “The repeated attempts made by the Appellant later amount to an abuse of process.”

The court also mentioned that the concealment of facts was the reason for rejection of enrolment and even subsequent acquittal would not come to the rescue of the applicant. The court also advised the appellant not to pursue the enrolment any further. The appeal was dismissed and impugned order was upheld.

—India Legal Bureau