Plea against ICAI for Violation of Natural Justice, Misuse of Jurisdiction in Disciplinary Matters: Madras HC asks ICAI Re-Examine Matter [Read Order]

The Madras High Court has remanded the matter to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) Disciplinary Authority on Plea of CA to examine, unravel, fix accountability for mala fide exercise of Quasi-Judicial Powers.

The petitioner, V.Venkata Siva Kumar has filed the present Writ Petition challenging the proceedings of the 38th meeting of the Board of Discipline of the respondent, wherein, the said committee accepted the report of the prima facie opinion of the Director Discipline in the matter of complaint made by the petitioner against the respondent 4 under Section 21 of the Chartered Accountants Act, recommending/passing the order for closure of the case.

The petitioner stated that he is a Chartered Accountant and lawyer by qualification and has been a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India for a period of 25 years, at the time of filing the Writ Petition. The petitioner has been working as a professor of accountancy, costing and management for students pursuing professional courses like CA, MBA, ICWA and in this capacity, the petitioner has been a member of the faculty of leading management and professional institutions like the Indian Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAI), IIPM, Loyola Institute of Business Management, RBI Staff College among others.

Several Writ Petitions based on the article were admitted by the High Court at different stages of hearing. The respondent, Mr.N.S.Srinivasan admitted during the enquiry that he has no basis for making the said complaint, which was also confirmed by the Disciplinary Committee. The petitioner filed a disciplinary complaint against the respondent for making malicious and frivolous allegations that resulted in the petitioner being removed from the faculty position, which was held by him for 18 years, resulting in loss of reputation among the students and the intellectual community causing mental agony and irreparable financial loss.

The single bench of Justice S.M.Subamaniam held that the complaint filed by the petitioner was not enquired into properly and by following the established principles of law. The nature of the allegations set out in the complaint by the petitioner, the evidence submitted as well as the statement made are not elaborately adjudicated or any findings are given by the Director Discipline in his enquiry report. Contrarily, the Director Discipline simply formed an opinion that the complainant made an allegation against the 4th respondent without any basis and such findings may not be sufficient as the director discipline is the original authority to conduct an enquiry which is of Trial nature. Therefore, reasons and the findings in respect of each issue or allegations made are necessary to form an opinion that the enquiry was conducted in a proper manner.

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