Revisit High Enrolment Fee To Bar Councils, We Aim To Provide Judgements In All Languages: CJI Bats For Democratisation Of Legal Profession

The CJI asked state Bar Councils across the country to relook fee structure for enrolment to their respective bar councils while speaking at the felicitation program organised by the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa, in Mumbai.

“It's very costly to enrol. The bar council should relook what they charge for enrolment,” the CJI said.

According to Live Law’s 2021 table showing enrolment fees of all state bar councils in India, the enrolment fee for Odisha is the highest at Rs 42,100, Gujarat at Rs 25,000, Uttarakhand and Kerala at 23,000 and 20,000 each, while the enrolment fee to the bar councils of Delhi and Mumbai stand at 15,000 each.

The CJI emphasized that his next mission was to use Artificial Intelligence to provide translated copies of all judgements in all Indian languages.

“How many young lawyers can afford a law report? If law students don't have access, then what are we here for? What good is it (law report) to a rural lawyer who does not understand the tenor of English? My mission for tech is to reach out to those who don't have access and not to create a further gap in access,” he said.

The CJI also complimented the BCMA on the release of a Civil and Criminal handbook, the first of its kind which would be distributed to over 50,000 lawyers who enrolled first. Using the QR code on the handbook, practicing lawyers would get access to 1000s of drafts of civil suits, agreement, documents, based on case laws.

All of the five law clerks working with the CJI are first generation lawyers, he said. The CJI further pointed out that he would often be asked why did he pay them so much (Rs. 65,000) to which he said that one should recognize the value of the intern or lawyer.

“There's an equal opportunity barrier. Law clerks interns are recruited through informal networks. But how do we open this to everyone?”

According to the CJI, the most sought-after people in the profession are those who belong to prestigious universities such as national law schools and are from metropolitan environments, meaning that valuable opportunities were denied to lawyers who didn’t have access to a privileged education.

“Only those people can crack the common law aptitude test who are good in English, who have gone to good schools, people who have had the benefit of access to good education. So that is one of the problems at every stage in access to our legal profession.” We need to enhance access to information and knowledge platforms so that students from law schools that do not provide access to knowledge platforms are benefitted

The CJI greatly stressed on the use of live streaming to do away with this meritocracy barrier. “We must have live streaming... I do not have a cynical view... Yes a few people will begin theatrics, but that'll be far and few between. Law teachers and students can watch and discuss live issues before the court. Then you realise the injustice that pervades our society when you discuss live issues.”

The CJI ended his speech by saying, “I will wish for you that you fly high, that you realise your dreams, and I will say one couplet by Alama Iqbal for young lawyers. "Sitaron ke aage jahaan aur bhi hai, abhi Ishq ke imtihan aur bhi hai, tu Shaheen hai parwaz hai, kaam Tera bhi aasman hai."

Compiled by Sharmeen Hakim