To be reintroduced - Bar Exams Apprenticeships

In an effort to raise the standards of the Bar, the Ministry of Law is now proposing to lay down an admission test for law graduates to obtain their license to practice. In addition, the Ministry proposes to reintroduce the mandatory apprenticeship which was in force for a brief period in 1996.

"The Advocates Act, 1961 may need amendment to consider reintroduction of mandatory apprenticeship and introduction of a qualifying exam for advocates before admission to the Bar," says a proposal approved by the Cabinet. The Act may be amended post consultation with the Bar Council of India.

In an effort to raise the standards of the Bar, the Ministry of Law is now proposing to lay down an admission test for law graduates to obtain their license to practice. In addition, the Ministry proposes to reintroduce the mandatory apprenticeship which was in force for a brief period in 1996.

Currently, to practice, a law graduate must go through an interview- more a matter of form and procedure than a filtering process- before enrolling with the Bar Council of India. "The Bar Council interview is nothing but a sham. I was asked questions about my family, and I know that others were asked as well. What does that have to do with you being a lawyer?" asks a Bangalore-based lawyer, on conditions of anonymity. He adds, "A change in the manner of admitting one to the Bar is long overdue. Unless  the new policy puts in place a strong, workable filtration process, there is no use."

The declining standards of the Bar have been a cause of concern to the Government and the judiciary, a fact that was made clear during the Round Table Consultation on legal education held earlier this year.

Prior to the Advocates Act coming into force, a law graduate had to undergo training by way of apprenticeship in the chambers of a lawyer for one year, and pass a separate Bar examination conducted by the Bar Council on the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 and the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898. After successfully completing the apprenticeship and the Bar Examination, a lawyer's enrolment had to be moved in the Court of the Chief Justice of the High Court concerned and the motion for enrolment had to be led by a Senior Advocate practicing in the High Court.

In 1994, the Chief Justice of India, Justice M.N. Venkatachaliah, constituted the Justice Ahmadi Committee on Legal Education consisting of Justices A.M. Ahmadi, B.N. Kirpal and M. Jagannadha Rao. The recommendations of the Committee led the Bar Council to reintroduce the one-year apprenticeship and make appropriate rules. These rules were challenged in the Supreme Court, which held that the subject of apprenticeship was one of the items of the Advocates Act that had been deleted in 1973. Consequently, the Bar Council of India could not have made any rule regarding apprenticeship and such a condition could be reintroduced only by an Act of Parliament.

Most developed countries have a mandatory bar exam for admission of law graduates to the Bar. The United States has separate Bar exams for each state, while the UK conducts separate exams for qualification as a solicitor, and as a barrister.

Bar exams are not a new concept for people wishing to practice before the Supreme Court. There are some stringent rules for becoming an Advocate on Record in the Supreme Court. The rule is as follows: "He who intends to be an advocate on record has to practice for 4 years as an advocate and thereafter has to intimate to the Supreme Court that he has started taking training with a Senior Advocate on record because he intends to become an Advocate-on-record. After the expiry of one year's training, he has to appear for an examination conducted by the Supreme Court itself. After an advocate passes this examination he must have a registered office within a radius of 10 miles from the Supreme Court building and a registered clerk. It is after this that the Chamber Judge of the Supreme Court accepts him as an advocate-on-record."

Contrary to popular belief that the proposed Amendment is culled from rules enforced in other countries, the Law Ministry is merely attempting to re-introduce a clause that was deleted from the Advocates Act in 1973.