Observing that wearing of black robes by lawyers is mandatory only before the Supreme Court as well as the High Courts across the country, the Madras High Court on Wednesday ruled that tribunals have no authority whatsoever to insist upon the lawyers appearing before it to wear the black gowns compulsorily.
Justices R. Mahadevan and Mohammed Shaffiq wrote: “From the conjoint reading of Section 34 of the Advocates Act, 1961 and the Bar Council of India Rules, it is clear that only the High Courts can frame rules for dress code for the appearance of the advocates either before it or the courts / tribunals subordinate to it.”
They went on to state: “The tribunals have no authority to issue any instructions determining the dress code for the appearance of the advocates before it.” The orders were passed while declaring as illegal a notification issued by the Registrar of National Company Law Board in 2017 prescribing a dress code for lawyers.
Advocate R. Rajesh, also a member of the Institute of Company Secretaries in India, had filed a writ petition in the same year challenging the notification which insisted that wearing of gowns would be necessary for the president, members and advocates before all the Benches of the National Company Law Tribunal.
Allowing the petition now, the Division Bench said, when the statute had conferred the powers on the High Court with reference to prescription of dress code, the tribunals could not issue any instruction, direction or advisory which run contrary to the statutory rules and without there being any source of power to issue such instructions.
Further, taking note that the NCLT had issued fresh proceedings on January 27 this year stating that the Bar Council of India Rules would be followed with regard to dress code for advocates, the judges said, even though the 2017 order had been withdrawn, it would still stand quashed on the basis of the reasoning adumbrated by them.
