Courts can't rewrite deadlines set by Bar Council for lawyer enrolment: Kerala High Court

The Kerala High Court today held that courts must not interfere with the deadlines set by the Bar Council of India (BCI) and State Bar Councils for the acceptance and processing of applications for enrolment as advocates [Bar Council of Kerala & ors v Unnikrishnan & ors and connected cases]..A Division Bench of Justices A Muhamed Mustaque and S Manu observed that it is not the Court’s role to adjust time schedules decided by the BCI for the enrolment and verification of candidates."The Bar Council is an autonomous body. It is for them to fix time and schedule for the enrolment. Bar Council of Kerala fixes the timelines based on the direction issued by BCI, to protect the larger interest. If the Court issues a direction which would breach the timeline of the schedule fixed by BCI, then it would defeat the very objective of issuing such decisions by Bar Council of India. It is not for the court to refix the timeline in a manner court wants to ... this is to be decided by Bar Council alone," the Court said..Candidates seeking enrolment must either comply with the prescribed timelines or await future enrolment opportunities, the Court pointed out."This Court shall not entertain writ petitions to rewrite schedule fixed by the Bar Council ... if the documents are not produced with time, such a person is not deprived from applying in the future; he can wait for future enrolment to be enroled as an advocate," the Court observed..The Court made the observation while disposing of three cases that raised questions of whether the Bar Council's deadlines for the submission of enrolment applications and verification documents could be relaxed.One such case concerned a plea by one, Unnikrishnan, who submitted his enrolment form in June this year. However, he was not able to meet the Kerala Bar Council's deadline to submit a provisional certificate from his college for the verification of his candidature. This was because the certificate was only issued on July 11, while the Bar Council's cut off date was on July 8. He moved the High Court for relief and a single-judge of the Court directed that he be allowed to enrol during the recently held July 28 enrolment session, despite the delay in submitting the document. This single-judge order was challenged by the Bar Council of Kerala (BCK) before the Division Bench of the High Court.The BCK, represented by senior counsel K Jaju Babu, argued that there was a recurring trend of candidates approaching the Court on the eve of their enrolment to modify timelines to submit their certificates. He pointed out that the BCI has fixed timelines for such matters and that adherence to such verification timelines is essential to maintain the integrity of the enrolment process..The Court today found merit in this stance and said it would refrain from interfering with the Bar Council's timelines in future. The Court also noted that apart from Unnikrishnan, it had also allowed two other candidates to take part in the enrolment session that was held on July 28, even though they too were not able to meet the deadline for submission of documents. The Court said that it would not revoke the relief already granted, but added that its order would not prevent the Bar Council from verifying their credentials and taking action against these candidates if any discrepancy is found. .Judgment copy awaited.