Recently, Bombay High Court directs Mumbai lawyer Gunratan Sadavarte to approach the Bar Council of India (BCI) against the decision of disciplinary committee of the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa (BCMG) to suspend his license to practice law for 2 years.

A division bench of Justices GS Patel and Neela Gokhale granted liberty to Sadavarte to move the High Court in the event BCI does not take up his appeal or any interim application he files for urgent relief. 

“We will not pronounce on anything because it will affect your appellate remedy. It will affect your case. We are not dismissing your petition, we will keep it pending. We are allowing you an opportunity. We are not forcing you to file an appeal and IA in appeal seeking stay. If they do not allow urgent hearing, then you can approach this court”, the Court said.

The lawyer had initially approached the High Court challenging a notice issued by BCMG asking him to appear on a complaint filed by advocate Sushil Manchekar, former president of the Pimpri Court Bar Association.

Sadavarte sought quashing of the order on the following grounds: 

1. That the complaint was adjudicated by a member who Sadavarte claimed was his opponent in the State bar council election;

2. That the committee refused to provide him with the necessary documents which they relied upon while passing the final order. 

Senior Advocate Darius Khambata and advocate Makarand Bokare challenged the maintainability of the petition. 

The ‘unconstrained’ appeal to the BCI provides for a full fledged hearing as if in a trial, with a provision to even bring a variation to the order of the State Bar Council, the High Court noted. 

With these observations, the Court directed Sadavarte to raise his present grounds before the BCI, while keeping his petition pending before the High Court.