he High Court has dismissed an appeal by high-profile former criminal barrister Navjot ‘Jo’ Sidhu KC against his disbarment.
Former Criminal Bar Association chief Sidhu was found guilty of professional misconduct for inappropriate behaviour after he invited a young woman to stay overnight in his hotel room during a mini-pupillage. He was disbarred by The Bar Tribunals & Adjudication Service after three of the 15 charges against him were found proved in relation to Person 2. The five-person panel returned with a majority verdict of three to two on disbarment.
The former CBA chair appealed, arguing that the tribunal erred in law when assessing the seriousness of the misconduct.
Mr Justice Choudhury in Sidhu v Bar Standards Board found Sidhu had used his position as a ‘senior silk and prominent member of the bar’ to pressure the mini pupil and the bar tribunal was entitled to disbar him. He said: ‘The misconduct in this case did not result from an unwise, spontaneous and consensual sexual encounter in a hotel. This was misconduct that involved a senior silk and prominent member of the bar using his position effectively to pressurise a young female mini pupil into a compromising situation in order to gratify his own sexual desires.
‘The tribunal was entitled, as a specialist panel of the professional regulator, to view such conduct as particularly serious and not adequately addressed by anything less than the indicative sanction of disbarment.’
