On Monday, the Hon’ble Supreme Court asked the Bar Council of India to take immediate steps to regulate the fake lawyers who are practicing in courts across the country. The Court said BCI to weed out such lawyers immediately to maintain standards of legal profession. The Court also clarified that the Supreme Court Regulatory Body for lawyers shall move on with the new rules for verifying lawyers and insisted all the Bar Councils of the State to implement those rules. The bench consisted of Justice P C Ghosh and Justice R K Agrawal who were considering the application filed by the Bar Council of India asking the permission of the Court to implement the rules regarding the Certificate of Practice, 2015 that brought out additional criteria or license to practice as a lawyer in the courts.
Senior lawyer K K Venugopal brought to the notice of the Court that there are increasing number of fake lawyers in the country and also said that the said number is enhancing in various courts in India. The counsel also submitted that there is a chance of unverified lawyers practicing in the courts similar to that of madras high court. The Supreme Court after hearing the counsel for BCI replied that the Court will not stay the rules but reminded that BCI should not be prejudiced as regards the advocates who are not regular practitioners due to an important provision of verification in the rules checks the regular appearance of lawyer in court. The Court postponed the case for further hearing but the date was not mentioned.
The Court is presently hearing a transfer petition initiated by BCI where it was requested that the apex court shall decide the justifiability of the rules taking into consideration the petitions that are pending in various High Courts on the same issue. From 2010 on-wards, the BCI had introduced All India Bar Examination where the aw graduates have to pass the exam to get the ‘Certificate of Practice’ to practice in the courts.
Adv. Jewel Panicker