Will Soon Take Appropriate Decision: BCI To Punjab and Haryana High Court On Charging Of 'Exorbitant' Enrollment Fees By State Bar Councils

The Bar Council of India has told the Punjab and Haryana High Court that it will soon take a decision on the issue of exorbitant enrollment fee being charged by the state bar councils.

The submission was made before the bench of Chief Justice Ravi Shanker Jha and Justice Vikas Bahl during the hearing of a petition alleging that the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana was charging exorbitant enrollment fee. 

Advocate Pardhuman Garg in his petition placed reliance on the judgment of the Supreme Court in Bar Council of India Vs. Bonnie Foi Law College and others, 2023 LiveLaw (SC) 96. The five-judge Bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, A.S. Oka, Vikram Nath, and J.K. Maheshwari had asked the Bar Council of India to ensure that enrolment fee does not become oppressive.

“We also have one caveat arising from the plea that different State Bar Councils are charging different fees for enrolment. This is something which needs the attention of the Bar Council of India, which is not devoid of the powers to see that a uniform pattern is observed and the fee does not become oppressive at the threshold of young students joining the Bar,” the bench said in the ruling.

In the case before the high court, Bar Council of India on March 27 submitted that it would be taking up the necessary steps pursuant to the directions of the Supreme Court. An appropriate decision in the matter shall be taken expeditiously in view of the judgment of Supreme Court, it said.

"Taking the statement made by learned counsel for the respondents on record, the present writ petition is disposed of in terms thereof," the division bench said, while disposing of the petition. 

Case Title: Pardhuman Garg vs. Bar Council of India and another CWP-PIL-100-2020

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