Law:

Section:

Legal Practitioner-Failing to appear for client an Court or making suitable arrangement for other counsel to appear for him­ Duty towards client and Court-Professional misconduct. Once having accepted a brief, it is the bounden duty of the counsel to appear on all dates fixed in the case, or, in the alternative, to provide a substitute for himself if his profes­sional engagements elsewhere prevent his personal appearance in the case in question. Counsel in this case did not appear in the Additional District Magistrate's Court to cross-examine prosecution witnesses in a theft case. His client was charged in the counsel's absence, and the case adjourned to next day for further proceedings under section 256 Criminal P. C. Counsel had another engagement on the next day out of station. He consulted his client and told him that he could not appear for him on the next day. He made to him the suggestion that he had the "legal right" to summon the prosecution witnesses as defence witnesses. The client agreed to this arrangement. On the next day neither the client nor counsel appeared in the case. Held, that the arrangement arrived at between the respon­dent and his client savoured of a mere device to obtain an adjournment of the case in order to accommodate the counsel. This amounted to professional misconduct and brought the counsel within the disciplinary jurisdiction of the High Court. The counsel failed to discharge his duty to the trial Court by absenting himself on the next date of hearing and not mak­ing arrangements for representation of the accused on that date. The mere circumstance that his client agreed to the procedure suggested by the respondent would not exonerate him from all responsibility. Besides his duty to his client, the counsel owed a duty to the Court. A counsel is an officer of the Court and must assist the Court in the administration of justice to the best of his ability and capacity at the same time safeguarding the interests of his client. By absenting himself on a date of hear­ing fixed by the Court, counsel was, if anything, hindering rather than assisting the judicial process. Counsel's conduct in this case was held to be grossly…

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