Goverment proposes Ombudsman for legal profession

The government is working on a bill to introduce an ombudsman to look into the complaints against lawyers and the formation of a legal services board to regulate law practices in the country, Salman Khurshid, minister of law and justice, said today.

In a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha, Khurshid said that a draft bill, ''Legal Practitioners (Regulation and Maintenance of Standards in Profession, Protecting the interest of Clients and Promoting the Rule of Law) Act, 2010'' was drafted and uploaded in the law ministry's website for comments and suggestions from stakeholders.

Khurshid said the draft bill would be reviewed based on these comments.

As per the proposed bill, the complaints against the legal professionals will be examined by the ombudsman and the report of the ombudsman would be forwarded to the disciplinary committee of the bar council of the state with a copy to the legal services board.

The disciplinary committee of the bar council would be required to consider the report of the ombudsman.

In case the report was not accepted by the bar council, it would have to provide a detailed reason for rejecting the ombudsman's recommendations and would be published in a prescribed format.

Khurshid said this would not in any way minimise the role of bar councils.

However, Clauses 30-33 of the proposed draft bill empower the legal services board to issue directions to the bar councils in certain specified circumstances and enables the board to approach the high court for enforcement of the directions if the bar councils fail to comply.