The Supreme Court has reiterated that an order of affirmation may not require elaborate reasons but it does not mean that such an order need not contain any reason at all.

A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Manmohan was hearing a civil appeal challenging the order passed by the Bar Council of India (BCI) which had dismissed the appellant’s revision petition.

In 2015, the Bar Council of Delhi (BCD) had dismissed the appellant’s complaint alleging professional misconduct committed by the respondent-advocates.

In its order, the Justice Datta-led Bench said that the impugned order of the BCI noted the facts giving rise to the revision and the arguments of the parties, spread over six pages but on the seventh page, the noting is completed in four lines whereafter the apex legal regulatory body spared “merely six lines for dismissing the revision without recording any reason at all”.

“In fact, the ipse dixit of the BCI that the impugned order of the BCD suffers from no infirmity and hence, does not warrant interference, is recorded,” it said.

The apex court emphasised that the law is well settled that an order of affirmation may not require elaborate reasons as required in the case of an order of reversal but it does not mean that such an order of affirmation need not contain any reason at all.

“Whether or not there was application of mind can only be disclosed by reason, howsoever briefly alluded to. (W)hat follows from the above is that the ‘what’, i.e., the conclusion, must have the ‘why’, i.e., the reasons (at least in brief), to stand on, which is conspicuous by its absence in the impugned order of affirmation,” said the Justice Datta-led Bench as it set aside the revisional order of the BCI.

The Supreme Court ordered the BCI to re-consider the revision petition and pass a fresh order after hearing the parties, in accordance with law, within six months from the date. Disposing of the appeal, the SC clarified that it has expressed no opinion on merits and left all points open for being agitated by the parties before the BCI.

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