Plea before Supreme Court alleges delay in Bar Council enrolment post fee cap order

The Supreme Court today heard a petition filed by a candidate seeking enrolment in a Bar Council who alleged delay of over 6 months by the Bar Council in his enrolment. 

A CJI Kant led bench was informed that the delay was attributable to the court's earlier decision which had said State Bar Councils (SBCs) and Bar Council of India (BCI) cannot demand payment of fees other than the stipulated enrolment fee and stamp duty, if any, as a pre-condition to enrolment.

To this, CJI Kant said, "For aspiring people like you, your prayer should have been to make it time bound within which lawyer has to be enrolled. You can amend the plea.. you can seek a direction to all state bar councils and the BCI that if a completed application form is submitted then such registration of advocate should be within 2 months". The bench accordingly allowed the amendment of the petition filed before it.

In July 2024, a bench of former CJI DY Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala held that the SBCs cannot charge “enrolment fees” beyond the express legal stipulation under Section 24(1)(f) of the Advocates Act, 1961 as it currently stands. Section 24(1)(f) specifically lays down the fiscal pre-conditions subject to which an advocate can be enrolled on State rolls. "The decision of the SBCs to charge fees and charges at the time of enrolment in excess of the legal stipulation under Section 24(1)(f) violates Article 14 and Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution", Court held.

While clarifying that the only charges permissible at the stage of enrolment are those stipulated under Section 24(1)(f) of the Advocates Act, the bench added, "All other miscellaneous fees, including but not limited to, application form fees, processing fees, postal charges, police verification charges, ID card charges, administrative fees, photograph fees etc. charged from the candidates at the time of admission are to be construed as part of the enrollment fee. The fees charged under these or any similar heads cannot cumulatively exceed the enrolment fee prescribed in Section 24(1)(f)."

Court had also questioned as to how much Bar Councils across the country were collecting every year under the enrollment fees paid by lawyers seeking to enroll with them.

Court was told that the charging of enrolment fees is a violation of Section 24(1) of the Advocates Act 1961 and that the BCI has the duty to ensure that exorbitant enrolment fees is not charged. Bench further noted that in Odisha, an enrollment fee of Rs 42,100 was charged; in Gujarat it was Rs.25,000; in Uttarakhand Rs 23,650; and in Jharkhand it was Rs 21,460.