A division bench of the Kerala High Court recently ordered the Bar Council of Kerala (BCK) to only collect the ₹750 enrolment fee from law graduates who wish to enroll as advocates until the Bar Council of India (BCI) establishes a uniform fee structure that applies to all State Bar Councils [The Bar Council of Kerala v. Akshai M Sivan].
In February of this year, a single judge of the Court issued an interim decision instructing the BCK to provisionally accept applications for enrollment from law graduates upon payment of ₹750.
However, the petitioners who had opposed the BCK’s decision to charge 15,900 in enrollment fees were the only ones who might benefit from that decree.
In front of a division bench, the BCK appealed the temporary ruling.
The appeal was heard by a panel comprising Chief Justice SV Bhatti and Justice Basant Balaji on June 12, and on that day, the bench issued an order extending the benefits of the single-judge ruling to all law graduates seeking admission to the State. [1]
The Bar Council of Kerala’s senior counsel responded to a pointed question from the court by saying that, as far as the petitioners are concerned, by taking the Rs. 750 enrolment fee, the enrolment of the relevant petitioners has been completed. We extend the same benefit to these aspirants as well because it is appropriate in the exercise of our jurisdiction and because the petitioners in this case claim representative status to advocate for and on behalf of graduates in a similar situation who would like to be listed on the Bar Council of Kerala’s rolls. A succession of individual cases by the candidates would be avoided by taking such a procedure, the Court said.
The sole judge’s decision was based on a petition filed by 10 law graduates from the 2019–22 class of the Government Law College, Ernakulam, who disputed the BCK’s charge of ₹15,900.
The petitioners claimed that they and several other students would face an “insurmountable financial hurdle” as a result of these costs.
The argument made in the appeal was that by creating regulations to levy a sum more than the ₹750 allowed by the Advocates Act, the BCK was going beyond the bounds of its authority to make rules.
It was argued in the appeal filed by BCK that there is no legal restriction on the State Bar Council’s ability to charge the necessary fees to candidates to meet the requirements of enrolment.
When the case was finally discussed, the attorney for BCK notified the division bench that all of the initial petitioners would be permitted to enlist after paying a fee of ₹750, pending the High Court’s verdict on the case. [2]
Additionally, it was said that the Bar Council of India must call a meeting in accordance with the Supreme Court’s directives in order to set a consistent enrolment cost that will apply to all Bar Councils in India. The bench was informed that the BCK would also attend the meeting and would make a decision afterwards.
The interim order was later extended to all law graduates by the Court through a subsequent ruling.
After two months, there will be a hearing on the appeal.
Written by- Himanshu Mishra, a student at St. Mother Teresa Law Degree College, Lucknow, 2nd Semester, an intern under Legal Vidhiya.
Reference:
[1] BAR AND BENCH, https://www.barandbench.com/news/kerala-high-court-directs-bar-council-of-kerala-collect-only-750-enrolment-fees (last visited on June 16, 2023);
