State Bar Councils Can’t Charge Enrolment Fee More Than ₹600: SC

The Supreme Court has recently stated that the state bar councils can’t charge an enrolment fee of more than ₹600 to law graduates having a limited family income, as prescribed under the statutes.

The bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud & Justice PS Narasimha issued a notice to all state bar councils that sought to know how much they charge the law graduates by way of enrolment fees and how much money is collected from them in a year.

As per the Advocates Act, the bench stated that the enrolment fee prescribed stands at ₹600, and no other state bar council can charge more than that. Senior advocate Manan Kumar Mishra, appearing for the Bar Council of India, stated that ₹600 fee for enrolment was fixed in 1993 and therefore the costs have risen manifold since then. The bench didn’t concur with Mishra, who also heads the BCI.

Mishra stated while referring to monetary inflation that, “The amount prescribed in the statute cannot be subject to inflation.”

The bench said law is a service-oriented profession & expensive fees can’t be charged as they may be detrimental to the interest of people coming from poor backgrounds. It asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to assist the court in the matter and posted it for further hearing after the summer vacation.

On April 10, the apex court sought responses of the Bar Council of India (BCI) and others challenging the “exorbitant” fees that were being charged by the state bar bodies for enrolling law graduates as advocates across the country.

The bench had stated that, “We will issue notice on this. This is a significant issue. The petition says that the exorbitant enrolment fee violates Section 24 of the Advocates Act, 1961.”

The petition claimed the enrolment fee in Odisha stood at ₹41,100, and in Kerala at ₹20,050.