6K Law Graduates Awaiting Enrolment: Madhya Pradesh High Court Directs State Bar Council To Enrol Them Provisionally Within Two-Weeks
Anukriti Mishra
27 Nov 2024 5:33 PM IST
In what comes as a relief to around six thousand law graduates, the Madhya Pradesh High Court on Wednesday (November 27) directed the State Bar Council to provisionally enrol lawyers within a two-week time, subject to the verification to be done by the Council. The process was halted for almost 4 months.
On November 11, a PIL was filed by Rakesh Singh Bhadoria, former Joint Secretary of the Madhya Pradesh High Court Bar Association at Indore alleging non-enrolment of lawyers since four months.
According to the petition, the last Enrolment Committee meeting was held on July 29, 2024 and since then, no subsequent meetings have been convened, halting the enrolment of aspiring advocates on the state rolls. The petitioner had thus sought a writ of mandamus directing the State Bar Council to reconvene the Enrolment Committee and expedite the resolution of the pending applications.
Yesterday, the division bench of Chief Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Vivek Jain had asked the State Bar Council to "take instructions" as to whether the enrolments were being processed.
Today, the counsel for the respondent/State Bar Council orally submitted, “In this case, the State Bar Council has received around 6000 nomination forms. Uske baad isme poore nahi the nomination forms toh uski scrutiny karke uski jaanch karke jitney bhi completed forms hain uske liye verification ke liye university ko bhej diye hain (incomplete forms have been sent to the Universities for verification).”
Justice Kait orally responded, “Aap se provisional enrolment ke liye bhi bola tha. There is a provision that by circular, same day enrolment can be done but one has to pay additional fee.”
To this, the counsel for respondent replied, “Abhi tak yaha nahi ho rha tha State Bar Council se provisional enrolment toh nahi kar rahe the. Agar order ho jayega toh kar denge. (MP Bar Council doesn't do provisional enrolment. But it will be done if an order is passed in that regard)”
Justice Kait further orally explained, “Delhi me ye hai that by paying extra fees very same day by circulation, advocate can be enrolled.”
Thus, the Court directed the State Bar Council to enrol all the advocates provisionally within 2 weeks, subject to verification.
At this juncture, petitioner's counsel asked the Court to grant liberty to revive the petition, if the enrolment is not done. However, the Court orally responded that the party may then file for contempt.
The matter was accordingly disposed of.
Case Title: Rakesh Singh Bhadoria Vs State Bar Council of Madhya Pradesh And Others, WP No. 34475 of 2024
