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Attorneys Act, 1979 (Act No. 53 of 1979)

Chapter I : Practitioners: Qualifications, Admission and Removal from Roll

22. Removal of attorneys from roll

 

(1) Any person who has been admitted and enrolled as an attorney may on application by the society concerned be struck off the roll or suspended from practice by the court within the jurisdiction of which he practises–
(a)
(i) if he is no longer a South African citizen;
(ii) in the case of a person who is not a South African citizen, other than a person contemplated in subparagraph (iii), if he has failed to obtain a certificate of naturalization in terms of the South African Citizenship Act, 1949 (Act No. 44 of 1949), within a period of six years from the date on which he was admitted to the Republic for permanent residence therein, or within such further period as the court may for good cause allow;

[Section 22(1)(a)(ii) inserted by section 9(a) of Act No. 108 of 1984]

(iii) in the case of a person referred to in item (bb) of section 15(1)(b)(ii), if he is no longer a citizen of any state referred to in that item, or has ceased to belong to a category of persons or to comply with conditions determined in terms of that item;

[Section 22(1)(a)(iii) inserted by section 9(b) of Act No. 108 of 1984]

(b) in the case of a person referred to in section 13(1) who is exempted from passing any examination, if he has failed to pass any examination in respect of which he is so exempted before the expiration of the period in respect of which he is so exempted or within such further period as the court may for good cause allow;
(c) in the case of a person admitted and enrolled in terms of section 17, if it appears to the court that he is no longer resident or practising as an attorney or a solicitor in the country or territory in which he was admitted and enrolled on his admission and enrolment in the Republic or if the country or territory in which he was so admitted and enrolled is no longer a prescribed country or territory; or
(d) if he, in the discretion of the court, is not a fit and proper person to continue to practise as an attorney;

[Section 22(1)(d) amended by section 99(c) of Act No. 108 of 1984]

(e) if his estate has been finally sequestrated and he is unable to satisfy the court that despite his sequestration he is still a fit and proper person to continue to practise as an attorney.

[Section 22(1)(e) inserted by section 53 of Act No. 129 of 1993

 

(2)
(a) If it appears to the court that a person in respect of whom a society intends making an application under subsection (1), has left the Republic and that he probably does not intend to return to the Republic and that his whereabouts are unknown, the court may order that service on that person of any process in connection with such application may be affected by the publication of such process in an Afrikaans and an English newspaper circulating in the district in which the said person's last known business address, as entered in the records of the society concerned, is situated.
(b) Any such process may, if the court so orders, be so published in a form as near as may be in accordance with Form 1 (Edictal Citation) of the First Schedule to the Supreme Court Rules.

[Section 22(2)(b) inserted by section 12 of Act No. 87 of 1989]

(c) Any process referred to in paragraph (b), shall before the publication thereof be approved and signed by the registrar concerned.

[Section 22(2)(c) inserted by section 12 of Act No. 87 of 1989]

[Section 22 inserted by section 4 of Act No. 76 of 1980]