Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act, 1973 — section 45

45. Powers of the Tribunal and Disciplinary Committee in inquiries..—(1) For the purposes of any such inquiry as aforesaid, a disciplinary Committee and a Tribunal shall have the same powers as are vested in a Court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (Act V of 1908), in respect of the following matters, namely.

(a)enforcing the attendance of any person,

(b)compelling the production of documents, and

(c)issuing commissions for the examination of witnesses: Provided that the disciplinary Committee or the Tribunal shall not have power to require the attendance of the presiding officer of any Civil or Criminal Court save with the previous sanction of the High Court or, in the case of the presiding officer of a Revenue Court, of the Provincial Government.

(2)Every such inquiry shall be deemed to be a judicial proceeding within the meaning of Sections 193 and 228 of the Pakistan Penal Code (Act XLV of 1860); and a disciplinary Committee and a Tribunal shall be deemed to be a Civil Court for the purpose of Sections 480 and 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (Act V of 1898).

(3)For the purpose of enforcing the attendance of any person or of compelling the production of documents or issuing commissions

(a)the local limits of the jurisdiction of a disciplinary Committee and a Tribunal shall be those of the jurisdiction of the Bar Council by which the Committee has been appointed or, as the case may be, the Tribunal has been constituted; and

(b)a disciplinary Committee and a Tribunal may send to any Civil Court having jurisdiction in the place where the Committee or, as the case may be, the Tribunal is sitting, any summons or other process for the attendance of a witness or the production of a document required by the Committee or Tribunal, or any commission which it desires to issue, and the Civil Court shall serve such process or issue such commission, as the case may be, and may enforce any such process as if it were a process for attendance or production before itself.

(4)Proceedings before a disciplinary Committee or a Tribunal in any such inquiry shall be deemed to be civil proceedings for the purposes of Article 15 of Qanun-e-Shahadat, 1984 (P.O. No. 10 of 1984) and the provisions of that Article shall apply accordingly.