Ethical Standards for Lawyers in India: Legislative Counsel versus Advocate

Authors: Devika Gulati, Alumni of LLM in Drafting Legislation, Regulation, and Policy at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London

Best Citation – Devika Gulati, Ethical Standards for Lawyers in India: Legislative Counsel versus Advocate, Indian Journal of Legal Review (IJLR), 3 (1) of 2023, Pg. 392-400, ISSN – 2583-2344.

Abstract

The aim of this article is to start a dialogue on the idea of an independent ethics’ code in a written form for the Indian legislative drafting community. For this purpose, I have compared the Advocates’ ethics enumerated in the Bar Council of India Rules, with the Legislative Counsel’s ethics, most of which are reflected in Indian academic writings and some find a general mention in the CCS Rules. This comparative analysis is done on the basis of the five dimensions introduced by Anne Seidman, Robert B Seidman and Nalin Abeyesekere, namely, I. Scope of Duties, II. Duty of Loyalty, III. Competence, IV. Confidentiality, and V. Terminating or Declining Instructions. It is observed that their ethical duties are glaringly similar. The similarity in ethics between the two professions aids the readers to imagine a separate written code for the Legislative Counsels, just like the one for Advocates, to help drafters solve several drafting dilemmas that may come their way