Addressing Professional Misconduct of the Indian Chartered Accountants

On February 8, 2024, the Supreme Court (SC) upheld Rule 9(3)(b) under the Chartered Accountants’ (Procedure of Investigation of Professional and Other Misconduct and Conduct of Cases) Rules, 2007. This Rule empowers the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI)’s Disciplinary Committee to re-investigate any professional misconduct complaint against any ICAI member (chartered accountant, in short, CA). The Rule indicates that the Board of Discipline can refer the complaint to the Disciplinary Committee despite the Director (Discipline) absolving the errant member of the alleged professional misconduct complaints. Affirming the Delhi High Court’s ruling by dismissing the appellant CA’s appeal, the SC upheld section 21A(4) of the Chartered Accountants (Amendment) Act, 2006, and observed that impugned Rule 9(3)(b) is not ultra vires of Section 21A(4). The SC further observed that the intent of the said Rule conforms to the very object and purpose of the Chapter on “Misconduct” under the Act of 2006. Against that backdrop, the present study motivates by revisiting the Rule’s scope to assess whether it could minimize the CAs’ professional misconduct.