PART J CLERKS OF LEGAL PRACTITIONERS.
1. No person shall be employed by a legal practitioner as his clerk unless such person has been a legal practitioner’s clerk for three years, or is a qualified petition-writer, or has passed the Matriculation Examination of a recognized University or a Board:
Disqualification. Provided that no such person shall be employed as a clerk-
(a) if he has been declared a tout; or
(b) if he is an undischarged insolvent; or
(c) if he has been convicted for an offence involving moral turpitude; or
(d) if he has been dismissed from the service of Government, unless he can show that his dismissal was not due to conduct showing him unfit to be legal practitioner’s clerk, viz., corruption or some other reason involving dishonesty; or
(e) if he is an ex-petition-writer, whose license has been cancelled for corruption or for some other reason involving dishonesty; or
(f) if he is unfit to be a legal practitioner’s clerk for any other sufficient reason.
Dismissed Local Council employees shall be regarded as dismissed “Government servants” for the purposes of these rules.*
Notes: (i) The rule shall apply to all persons engaged after the 20th November, 1936, but not to a person who was a legal practitioner’s clerk on or before the 20th November, 1936, and who may be engaged by a legal practitioner after the 20th November, 1936, provided_
(a) that his service subsequent to that date is continuous; and
(b) that his work is satisfactory as certified by his last employer.
(ii) The proviso shall apply to clerks already in the service of legal practitioners, who have been declared touts at any time, or who were convicted within five years before the 20th November, 1936, for an offence involving moral turpitude.
(iii) The proviso shall not apply to clerks already in the service of legal practitioners who have been dismissed from Government service.
(iv) The proviso shall not apply to clerks already in the service of legal practitioners who have been convicted, but whose conviction took place more than five years before the 20th November, 1936.
(v) The proviso that no person shall be employed as a clerk if he is an undischarged insolvent shall apply to clerks already in the service of legal practitioners.
2. No illiterate person shall be employed at all as a legal practitioner’s clerk.
Note: A literate person for purposes of this rule will be one who has some knowledge of English or preferably Urdu as being the Court language in the Punjab.
3. Not more than two clerks shall be appointed or retained by any legal practitioner.
4. The names of such clerks shall be communicated by each legal practitioner, who is a member of a Bar Association, to the Secretary of that Association. A legal practitioner who is not a member of any Bar Association and cannot under the rules framed by the High Court be compelled to join the Bar Association, shall communicate the names of his clerks direct to the District Judge.
5. The Secretary shall prepare a list of the clerks employed by the legal practitioners and send it to--
(a) the District Judge, or
(b) the Presiding Officer of the Superior Civil Court sitting at the place where the Association is.
6. Such list shall be submitted in the first week of January each year, any changes during the course of the year being intimated separately.
7. No clerk shall be recognized by the courts unless his name is borne on this list.
8. Clerks mentioned in the list shall be entitled to act on behalf of their masters, but on their responsibility, in all transactions which have to be done before or with the ministerial staff of the Court.
9. A copy of the list when received and of the changes notified shall be supplied to all courts situated at the station for information.
10. The list shall be in the following form:-
(a) name and parentage of the clerk,
(b) name of the legal practitioner by whom engaged,
(c) qualifications, i.e., whether—
(i) Matriculate,
(ii) petition-writer,
(iii) has three years’ service with a legal practitioner, with a certificate that the clerk has never been—
(a) dismissed from Government service,
(b) convicted of an offence involving moral turpitude,
(c) declared a tout,
(d) declared an insolvent, if so, whether discharged or undischarged.
11. A District Judge (and not a Bar Association) shall have power to declare a person to be unfit for employment as a legal practitioner’s clerk and to remove his name from the list of approved clerks to legal practitioners.
12. A clerk whose name has been removed by a District Judge may appeal to the High Court, which may, if it thinks fit, alter or revise the orders passed by the District Judge.
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