Mushrooming of "cowshed" law colleges needs to be addressed: Madras High Court

The hearing in a challenge to Section 9 of the Advocates Act, 1961 on Thursday led the Madras High Court to reiterate concerns about the mushrooming of sub-standard law colleges (Karthik Ranganathan v. Union of India and 2 ors)..Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee said that mushrooming of "cowshed law colleges" is an issue which needs to be addressed.The comment was made while addressing larger issues on maintaining the credibility of lawyers and the legal system. ."Because of the mushrooming of cowshed law colleges, we are churning out lakhs of lawyers without them coming through a proper process. We need to address them...Sunlight is the best disinfectant," Chief Justice Banerjee orally observed. .During the course of the hearing, the Chief Justice also hinted his support for including persons other than only practicing lawyers when it comes to disciplinary hearings in complaints of professional misconduct against advocates..The petitioner, Advocate Karthik Ranganathan, today recounted that in a rent dispute, his lawyer was found to have colluded with the opposite party. The complaint filed against the allegedly errant lawyer was ultimately dismissed by the State Bar Council, Ranganathan said. While the petitioner expressed that he did not agree with the dismissal of the complaint, he added that he had no complaints about the hearing itself..Expressing concerns about such alleged misconduct, the Chief Justice remarked, "I think we need a public hearing of this matter...this conduct will not go unless we open it out. The system is not our paternal property. This is a public system, we owe an obligation," he said. .The Chief Justice asked Additional Solicitor General R Sankaranarayanan what the Centre's stance on the petition was. The plea called for the inclusion of retired judges as members of disciplinary committees instead of having lawyers judge lawyers. "We wear the same black, everyone. Would it not enure to our prestige to have a level of impartiality? And we can co-opt persons of standing, members of civil society, to be nominated by people in whom we have confidence," the Chief Justice suggested..CJ Banerjee also observed that owing to the tarnished image of such positions, the undisputed leaders of the Bar often do not come forward to hold leadership positions in bodies of the Bar, including the Bar Council and Bar Associations. "We have office bearers - with notable and noble exceptions - in the Bar Council and manning Bar associations, who scarcely and rarely appear in court, if at all...With all humility, unless we get people who command that respect, have that standing, that decree of legitimacy is lost. And this is something for all of us to introspect. We judges also don't come flying from Venus or Neptune. We come from a pool of lawyers. We are lawyers first and judges next. I don't know who to appeal to so that we can introspect. Once we reform, it will reduce court burden, because a lot of false claims and utterly dishonest defences delay the process. If you had a level of accountability, then people would be scared of indulging in such practices," the Chief Justice said. .He added that the State of Tamil Nadu is better off on this count."Again I tell you, it is slightly better in this State than elsewhere. At least some action has been taken, at least there is some chance of action. Elsewhere, we don't even see (that)", he said. .On this count, Advocate Chandrasekhar, who appeared for the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, also informed the Court that thanks to the verification efforts of the Bar Council, it was found that of "one lakh" lawyers in Tamil Nadu, only 67,000 were found to be entitled to practice. .The Bench of Chief Justice Banerjee and Justice PD Audikesavalu eventually adjourned the matter for four weeks and asked both the Union of India and the Bar Council authorities to submit status reports on how the process of disciplinary hearings for advocates "may be reformed and made more impartial from the perspective of the outsider.""This is not adversarial .. We should put our house in order. Our credibility is at stake…No one wants to come to Court out of love or pleasure (they come because they are pushed to come to court). If the system is doubted, then there is a grave threat," the Chief Justice added. .Advocate SR Ragunathan appeared for the Bar Council of India (BCI), which has disputed the maintainability of the petition. .BCI disputes maintainability of plea challenging Section 9 of Advocates Act in Madras High Court.[Read a live account of the hearing]