Only 6 lakh out of 15 lakh lawyers have submitted verification forms, BCI to SC

The Supreme Court today heard the plea concerning verification of lawyers and conducting elections to various State Bar Councils and reserved its order with regard to conducting of elections.

A Bench of Justices RK Agrawal and AM Sapre heard petitioner Ajayinder Sangwan, the Bar Council of India, and various State Bar Councils for nearly an hour before reserving its order.

Senior Advocate Rajiv Dutta, who appeared for BCI, argued at length on the progress made by various State Bar Councils regarding verification of lawyers’ degrees.

Dutta also told the Court that out of more than 15 lakh lawyers in the country, only 6 lakh lawyers have submitted verification forms. He submitted that the main reason for delay in the same was shortage of time and resources at the disposal of universities.

Dutta suggested that a direction be issued to form smaller committees in each state, so as to assist the Universities in completing the process.

Senior Advocate Jayant Bhushan, representing petitioner Sangwan, submitted that delay in completion of verification of lawyers should not be a ground to hold up elections.

“There should be elections, no doubt. But should elections be held up indefinitely till the slow process of verification is complete?”, he asked.

Bhushan further argued that the elections should be conducted with those lawyers who have submitted the forms being allowed to vote.

“Those lawyers who have submitted their application for verification should be allowed to vote. Otherwise this will go on indefinitely”, he said.

Various other State Bar Councils also made their submissions before the Court reserved its order in the matter.

Back in August, the Supreme Court gave lawyers fifteen days to cure defective applications and to submit complete application forms for verification. Following this order, a contempt petition was filed in Court against the Karnataka State Bar Council for alleged violation of the same.