State Bar Councils Can’t Charge High Enrolment Fees For Lawyers: SC

The Supreme Court has ruled that state bar councils cannot charge more than Rs 650 for enrolling law graduates from the general category and Rs 125 for those from the SC-ST categories as lawyers.

The court emphasized that the Bar Council of India and state bar councils, which are authorized to enroll law graduates as lawyers under the Advocates Act, cannot override the legal provisions set by Parliament. A bench consisting of Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra delivered this ruling after reviewing a series of pleas that challenged the “exorbitant” fees levied by state bar councils for enrolling lawyers.

Referring to Section 24 of the Advocates Act, 1961, the bench stated that the enrollment fee for a law graduate is Rs 650, and only Parliament has the authority to amend this amount. On April 10, the Supreme Court had issued notices to the Centre, the BCI, and other state bar bodies regarding these pleas, highlighting that the issue raised was significant.

The petitions argued that the excessive enrollment fees violated legal provisions and called for the BCI to intervene to prevent such practices. “For instance, the petitioner alleges that the enrolment fee is Rs 42,100 in Odisha, Rs 25,000 in Gujarat, Rs 23,650 in Uttarakhand, Rs 21,460 in Jharkhand, and Rs 20,050 in Kerala,” the court noted while issuing the notices.

The high fees were said to effectively bar young aspiring lawyers, who lack the necessary financial resources, from enrolling.

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