Kerala High Court directs Bar Council to publish list of 1,157 advocates without valid practice certificates

The Kerala High Court has directed the Bar Council of Kerala to publish a list of 1,157 advocates who are reportedly practising in Keralam without clearing the All India Bar Examination and obtaining a valid Certificate of Practice.

A Division Bench of Chief Justice Soumen Sen and Justice V.M. Syam Kumar directed the High Court administration not to register any Vakalatnama in respect of these advocates. If a Vakalatnama is registered, an endorsement of the advocate’s exact qualification status should be included in the file to inform the presiding officer or the judge considering the matter.

The district judiciary was also asked to make endorsements on file for advocates on the list. If an advocate produces an authentic Certificate of Practice in the meantime, the advocate’s name would be deleted from the list on the Bar Council’s website.

The court directed the ad hoc committee currently in charge of the Bar Council to file a report on whether the advocates on the list have applied for a Certificate of Practice.

The court was considering a public interest litigation by a lawyer alleging that the Bar Council of Kerala was not following the rules and was permitting advocates to practise without valid certifications. He alleged that the list spanned almost every district of Keralam and included those enrolled between July 2010 and December 2021, many of whom were listed as “not qualified”.

The petitioner had obtained the list of 1,157 advocates by filing a Right to Information application after finding that the advocate appearing for the opposite party in a petition had not cleared the examination and did not possess a valid Certificate of Practice.

He sought directions for the Bar Council to initiate action against all advocates on the list, publish the list on the official website, and issue a circular to all presiding officers or judges in all courts of Keralam. He also sought instructions for the Bar Council of India to frame a standard operating procedure for periodic verification of qualifications, for legal services authorities, both State and national, to review the credentials of all advocates serving with them, and to remove those found without the required qualifications.