Only High Courts can prescribe dress code: Madras High Court quashes NCLT circular asking lawyers to wear black gowns

The Madras High Court on Wednesday quashed a 2017 notification issued by the Registrar of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) that directed all lawyers appearing before any bench of the Tribunal to wear black gowns [R Rajesh v. Union of India and others]..A Bench of Justices R Mahadevan and Mohammed Shaffiq said that the NCLT notification was without jurisdiction and authority, and had no basis in law..The Court said that the Advocates Act and the Bar Council of India (BCI) Rules clearly said that "only high courts" had the power to prescribe dress codes for lawyers. It further said that lawyers were required to mandatorily wear their black gowns only when appearing before the Supreme Court and benches of High Courts, and not before subordinate courts and tribunals."From the conjoint reading of Section 34 of the Advocates Act and the Bar Council of India Rules, extracted above, it is clear that only the High Courts can frame rules for dress code for the appearance of the Advocates before it, the courts and Tribunals, subordinate to it. In absentia, the rules in chapter IV of the Bar Council of India Rules shall prevail and the Tribunals have no authority to issue any instructions determining the dress code for the appearance of the advocates before it," the order said..The Bench was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a lawyer, R Rajesh, who appeared as a party-in-person.Rajesh had challenged a circular issued by the NCLT Registrar on November 4, 2017. He had argued that the Registrar had no jurisdiction to impose any dress code for lawyers and that the circular in question was ultra vires, null and void. He thus urged the Court to quash the circular on the grounds that it was illegal, arbitrary, and devoid of any merits. Advocate SR Raghunathan, who appeared for the BCI, supported the stand taken by the petitioner..In its order, the High Court agreed with the petitioner's submissions. It said that when statutes had conferred powers on High Courts with respect to prescription of dress code, any instruction, direction, or advisory by the Tribunal, especially when it ran contrary to the statutory rules, was "ultra vires the Act.".After the Court reserved its verdict on the PIL last month, the NCLT on January 27 modified its 2017 circular and withdrew the direction on gowns, to ensure that it was in consonance with the Bar Council Rules.The Court, however, said that though withdrawn and modified, the NCLT circular will stand quashed."At this juncture, it was brought to our knowledge that the proceedings dated 27.01.2023 has been issued by the NCLT, by which, the order impugned herein has been modified, with the effect of superseding the earlier instruction with regard to dress code for advocates, and the present order merely follows the Bar Council of India Rules. The proceedings dated 27.01.2023 is taken on record. However, the impugned order, though withdrawn, will stand quashed on the basis of the reasoning as adumbrated hereinbefore," the Court said..[Read order]