Surat District Bar Association launches drive to identify ‘ghost or bogus lawyers’

According to the Supreme Court of India and the Bar Council of India’s Certificate and Place of Practice Verification Rules 2015, all bar associations across the country should make the members fill the PVFs and submit them to the state bar council through the district bar councils.

On September 29, the Gujarat Bar Council (GBC) wrote to all district bar councils in Gujarat, informing that all lawyers enrolled after 2010 should submit PVFs to it before October 15, 2025.

The lawyers will also have to fill PVF with a passport-size photo and submit all their mark sheets from Class 10 to LLB. The applicant must also provide details of their office address, present residential address, and permanent residential address, along with their social media contacts and contact numbers for both the office and residence.

The SDBA has started distributing hard copies of PVFs to all lawyers registered with it.

Talking to The Indian Express, SDBA President Brijesh Patel said, “Around 9,000 lawyers have been registered with the SDBA, out of which 6,000 were enrolled after 2010. We have also sent PVF to the members via social media and WhatsApp. So far, we have received 1,500 filled PVFs from lawyers, and we are hopeful of completing the task before October 15. The collected PVFs will be sent to the Bar Council of Gujarat, which will verify the details with the schools and universities concerned.”

“The purpose of doing such a thing is to identify the ghost/bogus lawyers practising in different courts. In February, the SDBA came across complaints of two lawyers practising in the Mehsana and Anand district courts with state enrolment numbers of lawyers from Surat. We forwarded the complaint to the Bar Council of Gujarat for further action,” Patel explained.

“If a lawyer from another state wanted to practice in the Surat district court, he/she should first register with the Bar Council of Gujarat. The Council will verify his marksheets, and if found genuine, the applicant can practice here,” Patel said.

An official from the Bar Council of Gujarat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it has received around 4,000 filled PVFs from different parts of the state. “There are around 67,486 lawyers whose PVF should be collected. The highest number of lawyers is in Ahmedabad, followed by Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot districts. The district bar councils are working hard, and we are hopeful of achieving the target before October 15,” the BCG official said.

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