Delhi High Court to decide whether non-lawyers can appear before tribunals

The Delhi High Court is slated to consider whether professionals such as chartered accountants, company secretaries, cost accountants, other non-advocates can appear and argue cases before tribunals.

The Division Bench of Justice Prathiba M Singh and Justice Madhu Jain took note of the issue in a batch of pending petitions, including those filed by the Bar Council of India (BCI) and the Association of Tax Lawyers.

“These petitions raise a very important issue as to whether persons who are not enrolled as Advocates can appear before Tribunals and plead cases on behalf of their clients. Such class of persons include Chartered Accountants, Company Secretaries, Cost Accountants and other persons with similar qualifications who may or may not be persons possessing LL.B. degree," the Court observed.  

Senior Advocate Rajeev Saxena, appearing on behalf of the Association of Tax Lawyers, argued that under the Advocates Act of 1961, only advocates enrolled with the State Bar Council can practice before courts and tribunals.

“The matter relates to violations of the Advocates’ Act. Under powers of attorney, accountants and even graduates have been appearing to plead the cases. The authority has been allowing. This has sparked this petition to be filed. Time and again we have sent the representation to authorities. No action has been taken despite our petition to the institution," he told the Court.

Senior advocate Saxena added that a non-advocate practising before courts and tribunals would be punishable under Section 45 of the Advocates Act.

On the other hand, it was argued on behalf of chartered accountants, company secretaries and cost accountants that they can represent their clients before tribunals under Section 432 of the Companies Act and relevant practice directions and rules of the tribunals.

Justice Singh remarked that it is settled that non-advocates cannot appear before courts and the issue under consideration pertains to the legality of their appearance before tribunals.

“One thing is clear, it cannot be unregulated. The issue is very simple; whether non-lawyers can appear before tribunals. As far as courts are concerned, everyone is clear, you have to come with an advocate,” Justice Singh stated. 

The Court will hear the matter next on March 16. 

Advocates Ashish Middha, Pushkar Sood appeared for the Delhi High Court Legal Services Committee.

Senior Advocate Rajeev Saxena, Ajay Sinha, Abhishek Sinha, Megha Saxena, Shreya Bhatnagar, Pooja, Simran kumari appeared for the Association of Tax Lawyers.

Advocates Ajay Kumar Agarwal, Vivek Goyal, GS Chaturvedi, Virat Vibhav Singh, Himanshi Singh Monalisha Pradhan, Central government standing counsel Arunima Dwivedi, Senior Advocate Pooja Mehra Saigal, advocates Nivesh Dixit, Central government standing counsel Balendu Shekhar, advocates Krishna Chaitanya, Rajkumar Maurya, Divyansh Singh Dev, Panel Counsel (Civil), GNCTD Dhruv Rohatgi, advocates Chandrika Sachdev, Dhruv Kumar, Senior Standing Counsel Harpreet Singh, advocates Iqbal Singh Bedi, Suhani Mathur and Jatin Kumar Gaur appeared for various respondents.

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