The Bar Council of India (BCI) has submitted an application to the Supreme Court, requesting a directive for the Central government to amend the Advocates Act, 1961, to allow an increase in the enrolment fee for lawyers with the State Bar Councils.
In July last year, the Supreme Court ruled that State Bar Councils and the Bar Council of India (BCI) cannot charge enrolment fees exceeding the limits set by the Advocates Act. This ruling established that Bar Councils could charge only ₹750 from general category candidates and ₹125 from Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribe candidates for enrolment.
The judgment stemmed from concerns about the high enrolment fees imposed by various State Bar Councils, including those in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh.
The BCI has now argued that the enrolment fee is a primary source of income for Bar Councils. Without this revenue, the BCI stated, Bar Councils would face difficulties in functioning, including being unable to pay staff salaries or meet other financial obligations.
"It is also an admitted fact that if the State Bar Councils are restrained from charging anything more than Rs.600/- today; naturally the Bar Councils and the Bar Council of India would die their own death; their survival would not only be difficult rather impossible," the BCI's plea added.
Previously, the Bar Council of India (BCI) had written to the Central government requesting an amendment to the Advocates Act to revise the enrolment fees. The BCI proposed an increase in the enrolment fee for general category candidates to ₹25,000 and the Bar Council of India fund fee to ₹6,250.
For Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) students, the BCI recommended an enrolment fee of ₹10,000 for the State Bar Council and ₹2,500 for the Bar Council of India.
Additionally, the BCI sought the flexibility to adjust these fees in the future to account for inflation, using the Reserve Bank of India's inflation calculator as a reference.
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