Skip to content

CA held guilty of professional misconduct for non-detection of fraud in concurrent audit : HC

HIGH COURT OF DELHI

Council of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

v.

Uma Shankar Jha

Section 22, read with section 21, of the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 – Professional or other misconduct defined – Respondent, Chartered Accountant was a partner of firm appointed as concurrent auditor to audit account of Branch of Punjab and Sind Bank – A complaint was lodged with ICAI alleging that audit had been carried negligently and concurrent auditors did not detect fraudulent transactions – Disciplinary Committee opined that with a little more diligence concurrent auditors could have unearthed fraud and, therefore, respondent was guilty of professional misconduct falling within meaning of clauses (5), (6) and (7) of Part I of Second Schedule, read with sections 21 and 22 – Council held respondent guilty of professional misconduct falling within meaning of clause (7) of Part I of Second Schedule read with sections 21 and 22 and recommended to High Court that name of Respondent be removed from Register of Members for a period of one month – Whether decision of Council was to be accepted and respondent was held to be guilty of misconduct contemplated by clause (7) of Part I of Second Schedule read with sections 21 and 22 and penalty of severe reprimand was to be inflicted upon respondent – Held, yes [Para 11]

Leave a Reply