After Supreme Court prod, Law Commission seeks response from BCI, state Bar councils

The Law Commission of India has wasted little time in acting on the directions of the Supreme Court towards “redeeming” the legal profession. The LCI has now sought a response from all State Bar Councils and Bar Associations of Supreme Court and High Court regarding the regulation of the legal profession..This comes pursuant to the recent directions of the Supreme Court in Mahipal Singh Rana v. State of UP in which the court had called for review of Advocates Act..A press release by the Ministry of Law and Justice states,.“Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, in criminal appeal No.63 of 2006, Mahipal Singh Rana v. State of U.P., has asked the Law Commission of India “to go into all relevant aspects relating to regulation of legal profession in consultation with all concerned” at an early date. .In view of above the Law Commission of India has undertaken the study and requests the Bar Council of India and all State Bar Councils, Bar Association of the Supreme Court and Advocates on Records Association of Supreme Court, Advocates Associations’ (in whatever nomenclature they exist) in the High Courts and their respective Benches to send their comments to at lci-dla@nic.in, within 30 days.”.In Mahipal Singh Rana, while holding the lawyer guilty of criminal contempt, the Court had taken note of the fact that neither the Bar Council of India nor the concerned State Bar Council had taken any action against the erring lawyer despite a direction to that effect by Allahabad High Court..Supreme Court resigns to the failure of Bar Councils, stresses on urgent need to review Advocates Act.The court had, therefore, directed the BS Chauhan J. headed Law Commission to review the Advocates Act, and also directed the Central government to file an affidavit after considering the report of the Law Commission..The LCI’s mandate comes at a time when a number of current and former Bar Council of India members were sentenced to five years imprisonment by a special CBI court..Read the Law Ministry press release below.