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On Monday, the Supreme Court issued a notice regarding a petition contesting the All-India Bar Examination Rules 2010 established by the Bar Council of India, which specifies that an advocate must qualify for the All-India Bar Examination (AIBE) post-enrolment into the bar to be able to practice law. A triple bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar heard a petition submitted by a recently enrolled lawyer that has currently filed a writ petition with the Supreme Court.
The petition that was filed by Parthsarthi Mahesh Saraf, challenges the BCI's jurisdiction to lay down such a post-enrollment criterion for practise. The claimant also contests the notice given by the BCI on 21 December 2020 concerning the hosting of AIBE 2021 on the 24th of January and the 13th of March. The petition highlighted that the concern of the BCI’s jurisdiction to mandate such a qualification of both a pre-enrolment or post enrolment examination as a criterion to be able to practice law has been submitted before a three-judge constitutional bench in Special Leave petition 22337/2008 and is still pending decision.
The petition before the supreme court places emphasis on the case of V Sudheer vs BCI wherein the Supreme Court dismissed the Bar Council Training Rues 1995 which holds that BCI could not enforce additional requirements on lawyers by way of subsidiary regulations in violation of the Advocates Act, 1961.
The petition also points out that paragraph (d) of Section 24(1) of the Advocates Act-which allowed for the passage of the examination conducted by the State Bar Council after qualification as a requirement of enrolment was withdrawn as a consequence of the 1973 amendment. Since such an amendment, the BCI loses the legislative authority to lay down new requirements for enrolment and practice, in addition to those already laid out in the Advocates Act. The petitioner further submits that the AIBE Rules of 2010 are against the doctrine laid down by the above-mentioned precedents.
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