In the next seven months, the Bar Council of India (BCI) will have a count of “fake lawyers” practicing in courts without a valid degree.
The BCI, which is still in the process of verifying degrees of lawyers registered with the various State Bar Councils, informed the Government that as on date it cannot specify the number of fake lawyers but would do so in seven months. This information was shared in Parliament by law Minister DV Sadananda Gowda on Thursday.
A written reply laid by Gowda in the lok Sabha said the BCI has introduced an “exhaustive” mechanism to ascertain the number and identity of “fake or non-practicing” lawyers. For this purpose, it has framed the Bar Council of India Certificate and Place of Practice (Verification) Rules, 2015.
The rules will help check and stop the occurrence of the use of such fake degrees or to stop the non-practicing persons enrolled with the State Bar councils from getting benefits, Gowda said.
The issue of fake law degrees cropped up in a big way following the arrest of Delhi law Minister Jitender Singh Tomar, who possessed a fake degree. last month, BCI Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra opened a Pandora Box by claiming that 30 per cent of lawyers in the country are “fake”.
Speaking at a lawyers Meet-2015 in Chennai, Mishra had informed about the steps initiated by him to weed out the fake elements from the legal profession. The Advocates Act empowers BCI to discipline errant lawyers and take action against them. According to Mishra, strikes and boycotts by lawyers witnessed countrywide over petty issues stems from the presence of “non-practicing” lawyers. “We will filter bad and non-practicing lawyers and remove them from the rolls,” BCI Chairman had said at the event.
The task of verifying records submitted by lawyers will be colossal but BCI is confident that by early next year, the process shall be complete. At present the verification has been stayed in Karnataka and Kerala due to judicial orders.