An advocate has challenged the recently notified Certificate and Place of Practice (Verification) Rules, 2015, on grounds that they violate provisions of the Advocates Act. The court of Chief JusticeG Rohini and Justice R S Endlaw on Monday issued notice and sought responses of the Bar Council of India, Bar Council of Delhi (BCD) and the Central government on the plea, which alleges that the BCI rules, which came into force on January 12 this year, are “unconstitutional and are contrary to the provisions of the Advocates Act, 1961.” The rules include provisions for issuing a certificate of practice to all lawyers, and have imposed a duty on all state Bar councils to update the rolls of advocates and verify that all advocates enrolled in the state are practicing advocates who appear before courts and have passed the All India Bar Examination. [related-post] The plea, filed by advocate Ajayinder Sangwan through advocate Sunil Kumar Mittal, has however objected to the rules on grounds that they did not “add anything new” to the already existing process of verification of the electoral rolls, and the rules were being used as an “excuse” to extend the term of the state Bar councils “illegally”. The plea also sought directions to hold elections to the Delhi Bar council within four months, alleging that the term of the council had expired in December 2014.
