The Supreme Court on Wednesday supported the idea of testing the merit and talent of a lawyer before he gets enrolled into practice as it said the legal system cannot afford to have “half-baked lawyers”.
Hearing a challenge to one such test conducted by the Bar Council of India (BCI) where despite obtaining llB, a lawyer has to prove his merit in order to be eligible for practice, the bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur and UU lalit decided to hear the Centre and BCI on the issue and posted the matter for hearing before a three-judge Bench on Friday. Since 2010, the BCI has been conducting the All India Bar Examination (AIBE) which has come under challenge by various lawyers who argued that such an arrangement was illegal and against the Advocates Act. As per the Act, anybody with llB degree is eligible for practice.
Responding to the arguments made by the petitioner and BCI, the Bench said, “The system is crying for reforms...We already have two million lawyers. Any further addition should be based on merit.”