A Bill moved in Parliament to empower The Institute of Chartered Accountants of (India) ICAI, ICMA and ICSI to take disciplinary action against erring firms. This demand is long overdue.
The representation of the three professional bodies has been diluted on the composition of the respective Disciplinary Committees.
So long they could only act against their members and not against the firms they represented. The new Bill requires every firm to get registered with the concerned Institutes.
The Councils will have to maintain a Register of Firms with details of pendency of actionable information or complaint or imposition of penalty against them. The Councils are empowered to remove a firm the Register of Firms if it has been debarred from undertaking any professional activities of a Chartered Accountant in practice under any law or by any competent court.
For speedy disposal of disciplinary cases the Bill specifies a time limit of 270 days.
Significant Change
Revamping the composition of the Disciplinary Committees and the Board of Discipline. This will act as a blow to the three professional institutions. It takes away their powers to guide the outcome in disciplinary mechanism.
The Presiding Officer of the Disciplinary Committee will be a non member of the Institute which would mean that the President of these Institutes can no longer be the Presiding Officer.
The Bill shifts to two Institute members and three non members including the Presiding Officer appointed by the Government. Earlier it was the other way round.
The blow has been softened by allowing the selection of the Presiding Officer from a panel recommended by the Council of the Institutes.
To be concluded
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