Lawyers’ verification: “Don’t worry, we will take care of it”, Supreme Court

In a major development today in the challenge to the BCI (Certificate of Practice) Verification Rules, 2015, which mandates the verification of lawyers, the Supreme Court has allowed the Bar Council of India to implead all the universities as parties to the case..The Court has allowed the BCI to publish an advertisement in one English newspaper and different regional newspapers, asking universities to join the case. An order to that effect was passed by Bench of Justices PC Ghose and Rohinton Fali Nariman..When the matter was taken up today, Senior Advocate KK Venugopal submitted that no verification of lawyers has been conducted since 1986. He submitted,.“It is assumed that there are 1.7 million lawyers in the country. But no verification has been held since 1986. How many lawyers died, quit the profession stopped active practice is not reflected. 1.7 million is an imaginary number.”.He also told the court that an application has already been filed regarding universities asking for fees for verification. The Court then decided that it will hear everybody involved and dispose of the case..When the petitioner pointed out that the verification has become an unending process and it should be completed soon, Justice Nariman remarked,.“You don’t worry, we will take care of it”..The court then ordered to the effect that an advertisement be published in the newspapers, informing universities about the litigation and asking them to join as parties to the case..The matter will now be heard on February 28.