In Re V. Varadaraja Mudaliar, Advocate, Madras v.

The respondent is an Advocate of this Court. Two charges of professional misconduct have been framed against him. These have been investigated by a tribunal constituted under the Bar Councils Act. The tribunal having considered the evidence drew up its report, but unfortunately one of the members, Mr. T.S. Venkatesa Iyer, died before the document was ready for signature. In these circumstances, the learned Counsel for the 1st respondent has taken a preliminary objection that the report is not one which this Court can consider, having been signed only by two members of the tribunal. He says that a new tribunal will have to be constituted and the case investigated de novo .

Rule 7 of the Rules relating to the procedure to be followed by tribunals or District Courts in cases referred to them for inquiry under the Bar Councils Act reads as follows:

(1) The Tribunal or Court, having heard the evidence for the complainant and the respondent, shall report to the High Court its finding on each charge that has been framed, giving reasons for its finding.

(2) The findings of the Tribunal, if unanimous, shall be signed by all the members of the Tribunal. If the members of the Tribunal differ in their findings or any of them, all the findings shall be reported to the High Court, being signed respectively by the members whose findings they are. The reasons for the findings shall be reported to the High Court in one report if the members of the Tribunal are unanimous and in separate reports if their findings differ, provided that, whether their findings are unanimous or not, any member may record the reasons for his findings separately and the record so made shall be forwarded to the High Court with the other report or reports of the Tribunal in the case.

The direction that all the members of the tribunal shall sign their findings is mandatory. Moreover if a member of the tribunal dies before the report has been completed, that is, drawn up and signed, the tribunal ceases to be properly constituted. In these circumstances we cannot take into consideration the report before us and another tribunal will have to be constituted to investigate the charges.