Supreme Court issues notice to BCI, state bar councils on petition challenging ‘exorbitant’ enrolment fees

New Delhi, April 10

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Bar Council of India (BCI) and state bar councils on a petition challenging the “exorbitant” fees charged by various state bar councils for enrolling law graduates as advocates.

“We will issue notice on this. This is a significant issue. The petition says that the exorbitant enrolment fee violates Section 24 of the Advocates Act, 1961,” said a Bench led by CJIDY Chandrachud which took note of the submissions of petitioner Gaurav Kumar.

The petitioner alleged that the enrolment fees in Odisha was Rs 41,100 and in Kerala it wasRs 20,050.The “exorbitant” fees denied an opportunity to young aspiring lawyers, who did not have resources, he said, adding it violated one of the provisions of the Act.

Acting on another petition filed by advocate Ajay Shankar Srivastav, the Bench set up an eight-member committee headed by Justice (Retd) Deepak Gupta to monitor the process of verification of lawyers’ certificate of law practice and other education/degree certificates.

Srivastava had challenged the BCI’s direction to all State Bar Councils to interdict the process of verification of advocates.

Besides Justice Gupta – a retired judge of the top court, other members of the panel were retired Allahabad High Court judge Arun Tandon, former Delhi High Court Chief Justice Rajendra Menon, senior advocates Rakesh Dwivedi and Maninder Singh and three members to be nominated by the BCI.

“All universities and exam boards shall verify the genuineness of degrees without charging fees, and requisition by the State Bar Council shall be processed without undue delay. We request the committee to start work on a mutually convenient date and time and status report to be filed on August 31, 2023,” the Bench said.