Professional misconduct in legal practice includes client solicitation, brief snatching, and fee undercutting as unethical conduct.

Solicitation of clients by accosting litigants at court entrances, snatching briefs, fighting for briefs, and undercutting fees is incompatible with the ethical standards of the legal profession and constitutes professional misconduct. Rule 36 of the Bar Council of India Rules was treated as illustrative of the broader prohibition against solicitation and other unworthy practices, not as a narrow formula that must be artificially dissected into separate elements. The disciplinary tribunal's restrictive reading of the rule was erroneous, and the conduct was also condemned as undermining the public trust placed in advocates. The proceedings were further criticised for clubbing multiple respondents and charges without adequate individualised scrutiny.

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Issues: Whether solicitation of work by accosting litigants, snatching briefs, fighting for briefs, and undercutting fees amounts to professional misconduct, and whether the disciplinary tribunal erred in treating such conduct as outside the scope of the governing ethical standards.

Analysis: The governing law treats the legal profession as a public trust, requiring conduct that preserves confidence in the administration of justice. Professional misconduct is not confined to the narrow wording of a single rule. Rule 36 of the Bar Council of India Rules on Standards of Professional Conduct and Etiquette was held to be illustrative of the ethical prohibition against solicitation and related unworthy practices, not a mechanical formula requiring artificial dissection into isolated elements. Conduct such as soliciting clients at court entrances, snatching briefs, physical scrambling for work, and undercutting fees was held to be dishonourable and incompatible with the standards expected of advocates. The disciplinary tribunal's restrictive view of Rule 36 was found erroneous, and the court also criticised the manner in which the disciplinary proceedings were conducted by clubbing multiple respondents and charges together without adequate individualised scrutiny.

Conclusion: Such conduct constitutes professional misconduct. The appellate disciplinary tribunal's view to the contrary was rejected, and the individual appeals were then disposed of on the evidence by maintaining acquittals in some cases, restoring guilt in others, and reducing punishment where clemency was considered appropriate.

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