Supreme Court Calls Proposal For National Digital Registry Of Advocates ‘Very Innovative’, Seeks Concrete Framework

The Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice V. Mohana was hearing a public interest petition filed by the Bar Association of India (BAI), which also sought a social media code of conduct for advocates, including regulation of online solicitation and misleading promotional practices.

Appearing for the BAI, Advocate Vipin Nair, along with BAI President Prashant Kumar, submitted that the petition addressed two structural concerns confronting the legal profession: the absence of a reliable, nationally verifiable database of advocates and the growing regulatory vacuum concerning lawyers' conduct on social media platforms.

At the outset, the Chief Justice observed that the proposal merited serious consideration.

"This appears to be a very innovative idea. Nowadays with technology it can be done," CJI Surya Kant remarked.

The Bench, however, indicated that any exercise to create a national digital registry would necessarily require the participation of law universities and educational institutions to verify the credentials of graduates entering the profession.

"For any coordinated effort, you have to ultimately include the law universities compelling them to disclose and notify the list of all those graduates from universities," the Chief Justice observed.

The petitioner then proposed placing a supplementary policy paper and a workable mechanism before the Court.

The Bench asked the petitioner to first prepare a concrete framework before seeking judicial directions.

"You first need to create a module kind of thing. You give a proposal, then we will see what can be done," the Chief Justice said.

The matter has been adjourned to July 20.

According to the petition, India currently has approximately 1.8 million enrolled advocates, but there is "no single, publicly verifiable, real-time national record of who among them is genuinely enrolled, holds verified qualifications, and is in good standing." The petition states that enrolment and maintenance of records remain fragmented across 23 State Bar Councils, operating "without uniform standards, without inter-operability, and without any mechanism by which a litigant, a court, or any authority can verify an advocate's credentials instantly."

The BAI contended that this opacity has enabled fraudulent enrolments to persist on a large scale. Referring to concerns raised earlier this year, the petition noted that the Chairperson of the Bar Council of India had publicly acknowledged that "approximately 35–40% of those practising before courts may be fake" and that a substantial number of advocates did not respond to the Bar Council's verification exercise.

To address the issue, the petition proposed the establishment of a National Digital Registry for the Legal Profession of India (NDRLP), envisioned as a single authoritative national database containing a Unique National Advocate Identifier, real-time enrolment status, verified qualifications, disciplinary records and a QR-verifiable public profile accessible on mobile devices within seconds.

The petition also raised concerns regarding advocates' conduct on social media platforms, alleging widespread violations of professional ethics through online solicitation and self-promotional content.

It alleged that advocates increasingly publish "promotional reels depicting court appearances and professional engagements; lifestyle content: expensive restaurants, luxury travel, conspicuous spending, deployed to build a professional brand; unverifiable claims of expertise and success rates; and paid designations from commercial award-giving organisations displayed as evidence of peer recognition."

The petition argued that such practices mislead litigants and undermine public confidence in the justice delivery system.

Addressing these concerns, the Chief Justice observed that the legal profession traditionally places great emphasis on ethics and responsibility.

"Advocates normally are very responsible. The first thing they learn is professional ethics. So those who do these things may not even really be professionals. They may not in fact actually be enrolled," CJI Surya Kant remarked.

The petition seeks directions to establish the proposed digital registry through coordinated efforts involving the Bar Council of India, State Bar Councils, universities and the Union Government, besides directing the Bar Council of India to frame a Social Media and Digital Conduct Code under Section 49 of the Advocates Act, 1961.