R.K.ABICHANDANI - (1.) This Reference is made under Section 21(5) of the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949, by which the Council has forwarded the case to this Court after finding the respondent, who is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, guilty of misconduct other than the misconduct as is referred to in sub-section (4) of Section 21 of the Act, and recommended removal of the respondent's name from the Register of members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India for a period of six months.
(2.) The Charge levelled against the respondent in respect of the alleged misconduct reads as under : "The respondent had, authored a book entitled "Tax Planning for Secret Income (Black Money)". On going through the Preface as well as the contents of the book, it was seen that the author had explained in detail the various methods of creation of black money followed by different sections of society and the methods legal as well as illegal generally adopted to convert the same into white. Since it appeared that the title of the book, its preface, its contents and in totality the book was likely to create an impression in the eyes of common man that the Chartered Accountants are experts in helping in the creation of black money and its conversion into white money, though there is no direct reference as such to the Chartered Accountants, this might tend to lower the image of the profession in the public eyes. It appears that the conduct of the respondent in writing such a book was unbecoming of a chartered accountants. Thus, the respondent had committed professional and / or other misconduct under Section 21 and 22 of the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949."
(3.) The matter was placed before the Disciplinary Committee for holding an inquiry against the respondent, and the Disciplinary Committee, after giving an opportunity of hearing to the respondent, found that the respondent's argument that he had only described practices followed in the generation of unaccounted money cannot be accepted. The Committee observed that a Chartered Accountant as a member of the institute, has a role to play in the society and is required to observe high standards of integrity and professional ethics and is expected to discharge his professional obligation to discourage tax evasion and not to publicise methods of tax evasion which have the effect of educating the public. It was found that, despite the respondent's professed intention, the actual effect of the book authored by him was to educate the public as to how to evade tax and create unaccounted money. It was found that the respondent's conduct in publicising methods of tax evasion as narrated in the said book was unbecoming of a member of the Institute. The Committee negatived the argument that the Council cannot sit in judgement over the merits and demerits of the contents of the book authored by a member. It was held by the Committee that the matter was referred to the respondent on 28th October 1985 and therefore, there was no delay on the part of the Institution in initiating the proceedings. The Committee concluded that, in its opinion, the respondent was guilty of "other misconduct" under Section 21 read with Section 22 of the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949. The Committee consisted of a President and two members.;