The Supreme Court of India has held that disciplinary jurisdiction under the Advocates Act, 1961, can ordinarily be invoked only when there exists a jural (professional) relationship between the complainant and the advocate concerned.

A Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta, while quashing proceedings initiated by the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa (BCMG), described such complaints as “highly objectionable, totally impermissible, and absolutely uncalled for.”

Frivolous Complaints by Opposite Parties Rejected

The lead matter, Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa v. Rajiv Nareshchandra Narula & Ors., arose out of a complaint alleging that advocate Rajiv Narula suppressed facts in a decades-old property dispute, resulting in a fraudulent consent decree. The complainant, however

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