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June 2023

Watchdog – Whether Placed Under Statutory Watch!!

By Dr. Dilip K. Sheth, Chartered Accountant
Reading Time 13 mins
INTRODUCTION
 
In the course of their professional duties, chartered accountants, company secretaries and cost accountants are governed by the professional norms laid down in the relevant statutes overseeing their conduct. Thus, chartered accountants are governed by Chartered Accountants Act, 1949. Similarly, company secretaries are governed by Company Secretaries Act, 1980. The cost accountants are governed by Cost and Works Accountants Act, 1959.
 
Whenever these professionals are questioned as regards their professional conduct, the disciplinary forum adjudicates on their conduct in terms of the disciplinary mechanism laid down under the respective statutes mentioned above.
 
In several court matters, the professional against whom there was a charge of gross professional misconduct punishable under the statute governing him, there was always a convenient defence explored by the professional.
 
Often, the principles decided by English Judiciary came to the rescue of the professional and saved him from punishment. Thus, in respect of the charge of professional misconduct by a chartered accountant in respect of the gross negligence in his professional work relating to the audit of accounts of a business, defence was based on the age-old golden tenet “the auditor is not a bloodhound; he is merely a watchdog”Read More