BAR COUNCIL OF MAHARASHTRA Vs. M V DABHOLKAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These appeals have filled us as much with deep sorrow as with pained surprise. The story of the alleged 'professional misconduct' and the insensitivity of the disciplinary authority to aberrant professional conduct have been the source of our distress, as we will presently explain, after unfurling the factual canvas first.

(2.) The first chapter of the litigation in this Court related to the standing of the State Bar Council to appeal to this Court, under Sec. 38 of the Advocates Act, 1961 (the Act, for short) against an appellate decision of the Disciplinary Tribunal appointed by the Bar Council of India. This Court upheld the competence to appeal, thus leading us to the present stage of disposing of the eight cases on merits.

(3.) The epileptic episodes- what other epithet can adequately express the solicitation circus dramatised by the witnesses as practiced by the panel of advocate-respondents before us - make us blush in the narration.