Verification: Delhi Bar Council Gives List Of 1,300 Advocates With No Or Illegible LLB Certificate, To Cure Defect By Sept 13 [Read Notice]

In pursuance to the Supreme Court’s last week decision granting 15 days for lawyers enrolled with any state bar council to cure the defects in their applications for verification of their LLB degrees, the Bar Council of Delhi has issued a notice with a list of 1,300 advocates whose LLB degrees/ certificate are not clear or not available with the Bar Council.

In a notice posted on August 30, the Bar Council of Delhi said, “Reference Hon'ble Supreme Court order dated August 23, 2017, in transferred case titled Ajayinder Sangwan Vs Bar Council of Delhi & Ors... the following advocates are requested to submit their LLB degree certificates on or before September 13, 2017, on any working day.”

The notice has 1,300 entries/ names of advocates, whose LLB degree is not available with enrolment and verification form or the LLB degree certificate is not legible.

One can go on the bar council's website and check her or his status.

An advertisement to this effect was also issued by the Bar Council of Delhi on August 29 in a leading English and a Hindi newspapers, as directed by the apex court bench of Justices R K Agarwal and Abhay Manohar Sapre.

The directions of the apex court come in a batch of petitions challenging the 2015 Bar Council of India Rules, which require lawyers to re-register. All advocates enrolled with any state bar council need to verify their LLB degrees after five years.

The Certificate and Place of Practice (Verification) Rules, 2015, were notified in January 2015.

It casts duty on all state bar councils to update the rolls of advocates and verify that all advocates enrolled in the state are practicing advocates who appear before courts and have passed the All-India Bar Examination. The lawyers are required to re-verify their LLB degrees.

This practice is to weed out fake lawyers since elections to many state bar councils are in the waiting with the term of the council already over.

The Supreme Court had transferred before itself all petitions pending before various courts challenging the said Rules.

One such petition was filed by Ajayinder Sangwan in the Delhi High Court in March, 2015, which challenged the Rules on the ground that they were illegally extending the term of State Bar Councils like the Bar Council of Delhi whose term had expired in December 2014.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has also directed the varsities to ensure the verification of the LLB Degrees awarded by them in a month’s time without charging any fee.