'Consider Provisionally Enrolling [Indian] Foreign Law Graduates' : Indira Jaising Writes To Bar Council Of India Chairperson

Highlighting the difficulties faced by foreign law graduates on account of the delay in declaring the results of qualifying exams, Senior Advocate Indira Jaising has requested the Bar Council of India Chairperson to consider giving them provisional enrolment, subject to such conditions as may be imposed by the BCI.

"I have received many distress calls, from graduates who have been waiting for the last one year to be enrolled as Advocates in India under the Advocates Act of 1962", Jaising wrote in the letter sent to BCI Chairperson Senior Advocate Manan Kumar Mishra.

Foreign law graduates have to qualify an exam conducted by the Bar Council of India to practice in India. Due to the pandemic last year, the foreign law graduates qualifying examination was repeatedly postponed from May 2020 onwards and finally, under the new pattern, the examination was held on 27th November, 2020. But, the results are yet to be declared.

"The delay of enrolment has caused great mental worries to foreign law graduates and their parents who have spent huge amount of monies on their education abroad. They have lost one year in the process even though they have studied in prestigious universities.Many of them are holding LLM degree and some have qualified as Solicitor and Barrister. Some have also undergone conversion course for one or two years in the National Law Schools in India", she writes in the letter.

It is also said in the letter that many students are aggrieved at the fact that new pattern of exam was held in November 2020 without any model paper to guide.

"To set right all this injustice,and in the event the results cannot be declared immediately, I request you as a responsible member of the profession and a concerned citizen,to consider provisionally enrolling the foreign law graduates as Advocates immediately with such conditions as BCI deems fit and proper", Jaising said in the letter.

About 150 such graduates are said to be awaiting enrolment.

"These young people can add value to the profession and work in public interest, enhancing the pool of legal aid lawyers if need be or in other public spaces as qualified advocates. It is a shame to loss a valuable human resource in this manner", she urged.