News Item "ITAT laments Severe fall in standards of CA profession"- Do you agree?
|CA Ashutosh Lohani|

Dear Friends,

I am sorry to say that it has become the latest buzz among CAs to nod and express serious concern over the degradation in CA profession as if CAs are the least desired species of the a sinned profession and should be sent to exile if not eliminated.

Wherever there is a gathering, we would discuss what is being said about and and start lamenting over our profession. I am really shocked to see such tendencies, as if we have lost all of our pride and honour. Is there nothing to feel honoured about our profession and us?

No doubt, there are black sheep in the profession but this is so true with every profession, every service, every part of human life. It is a simple rule that if we can’t respect our own profession ourselves, should not expect others to respect it. The pride of the profession comes from the inner conscious and if one has been honest to ones profession; stray incidents of wrongful doings should be considered as personal acts of the person concerned than the act of the profession itself.

CAs have done a great service to the nation and will continue to be. Nobody should have any doubts about it. One single chartered accountant's professional advice that does not seem to be correct or contrary to the law (which again can be the subject matter of further litigation) can never be a basis to judge the whole profession of Chartered Accountancy or its members in general.

As far as the question whether I agree with the views of ITAT (Click to read) is concerned, I would like to point out that on many occasions, decisions of Tribunals have been reversed by the High Courts/Supreme Court for the mis-interpretation and/or wrong application of law. You will all agree that it can never put a question mark on the competence of the Tribunals . Likewise, I do not agree with the Tribunal for the similar notion for our profession too.

I seize this opportunity to appeal to all members that we all should, take extreme care and must not make unnecessary comment towards any part of the society, especially when it is backed by some assumed probabilities. Our personal bias, grievances and experiences should not guide us in forming an opinion on the entire section of a class, be it politics, administration, judiciary, any profession or service. We must not try to put a question mark on everyone on the basis of few because every section of the society has a role to play towards the nation building and one can barely have so much of wisdom to rightly judge who is what and who is not.

So, let’s talk about how great our profession has been and feel proud to be a CA.

Are you proud to be a Chartered Accountant ?