20/04/2022, 06:37 - PIO of Bar Council: According to Rule 23(a), Part IX, the name of the Advocates shall

ates shall be entered in the rolls without suffixes, pr…

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ation - CIC: PIO to give a reply to the complainant and file an affidavit regarding non-receipt of RTI application

PIO of Bar Council: According to Rule 23(a), Part IX, the name of the Advocates shall be entered in
the rolls without suffixes, prefixes, titles or degrees - The Commission found nothing wrong in
using such prefix who is genuinely awarded a Ph.D degree
9 Mar, 2015

The appellant is present for videoconferencing at Tiruvallur. The Public Authority is represented by Mr. Ashok Kumar Pandey, Joint Secretary, Bar
Council of India, New Delhi.
FACTS:
2. Appellant through his RTI application dated 15012013 had sought information with respect to an earlier reply of PIO, Bar council of Tamilnadu dated
261212 and stated that “It says that I have been permitted to prefix “Dr” before my name except enrollment certificate as per BCI rules and sought to
know whether the public authority was confirming the same. PIO replied on 25022013. Being unsatisfied with information provided, the appellant
preferred First Appeal. FAA by his Order dated 18032013 upheld the reply of PIO. Being unsatisfied with the information provided, the appellant has
approached the Commission in Second Appeal.
Decision:
3. Both parties made their submissions. The PIO, Bar Council of India stated that according Rule 23(a), PartIX , the name of the Advocates shall be
entered in the rolls without suffixes, prefixes, titles or degrees. As the Bar Council of India is a statutory body and entrusted with the responsibility of
protecting the dignity of the profession, the law and rules prescribe certain norms for the members of the law profession to follow. It is assumed that
profession of lawyer is either on par with or above the other professions. At the same time, the appellant has a genuine question as to why he should not
use title/prefix – Dr. (Doctor), which means that he acquired Ph.D. In this case the appellant claims that he was awarded degree of Ph.D. and he wanted
to know why he should not use it. The PIO has simply cited the rule and did not go into further details regarding propriety of using such prefixes. The
appellant claimed that the prefix “Dr.”is not title and it was acquired by him. It also does not cause any dent to the degree of profession of an advocate.
Nowhere in the Rules of Bar Council of India, was the usage of titles like Dr. or degrees like LL.B., M.A., Ph.D. considered as misconduct. Hence the
Commission observes it is a matter of accomplishment for a person who is genuinely awarded a degree of Ph.D to mention Dr prior to his name. Without
going into the unnecessary debate, increasing or decreasing the dignity, if anybody uses such prefix, without having acquired degree, one can doubt the
purpose. Otherwise, the Commission finds nothing wrong in using such prefix. However, such clarifications cannot be sought under section 2(f) of the RTI
Act. The appellant being an advocate and Doctor of Philosophy, he should not have approached the Bar Council for this kind of question, which cannot
even be considered as request for information.
4. With the above observations, the Commission closes the appeal.

(M. Sridhar Acharyulu)

Information Commissioner

Citation: Mr. T.P.Loganathan v. Bar Council of India in File No.CIC/SS/A/2013/001133SA

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