Notification to make Aadhaar, voter ID with Delhi-NCR address ‘mandatory’ for enrolment withdrawn: Bar Council of Delhi to HC

After hearing the submission, the bench said that nothing survives in the matter and disposed of the two pleas. The HC further directed BCD to notify the "subsequent notification" by which the April 13 notification stands withdrawn "positively within four weeks".

By: Express News Service

New Delhi | Updated: August 21, 2023 02:06 PM IST

3 min read

The submission was made by BCD's counsel before a division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula. The High Court was hearing two pleas challenging the BCD’s April 13 notification.

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The Bar Council of Delhi (BCD) Monday informed the Delhi High Court it has withdrawn its April 13 notification making Aadhaar and voter identity cards, bearing the address of Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR), mandatory for the enrolment of law graduates with the body.

The submission was made by BCD’s counsel before a division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula. The High Court was hearing two pleas challenging the BCD’s April 13 notification.

After hearing the submission, the bench said that nothing survives in the matter and disposed of the two pleas. The HC further directed BCD to notify the “subsequent notification” by which the April 13 notification stands withdrawn “positively within four weeks”.

One of the pleas moved by the petitioner, Rajani Kumari, a law graduate from Campus Law Centre, University of Delhi, states that BCD “deliberately excluded law graduates who are domiciled outside Delhi/NCR” and come from far away parts of the country to practice law in the national capital from eligibility for enrolment with the Bar Council of Delhi.

The BCD’s notification stated, “… all those law graduates who wish to apply for enrolment with the Bar Council of Delhi shall be required to attach copy of Aadhaar Card and Voter ID Card of Delhi/NCR (National Capital Region) along with their respective application and other documents, and the Aadhaar Card and Voter ID Card must bear the address of Delhi or NCR. Henceforth, no enrolment shall be done without the copy of Aadhaar Card and Voter ID Card bearing the address of Delhi/NCR”.

The plea sought a declaration that the notification is violative of part III of the Constitution and further sought its quashing as it relates to a stipulation concerning eligibility disabling law graduates from outside Delhi-NCR from getting enrolled with the Bar Council of Delhi.

The plea asserts that Article 19 of the Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of speech and expression, the right to assemble peaceably, and the right to form associations or unions and the requirement of an Aadhaar and Voter ID card with a Delhi/NCR address will pose an “unreasonable restriction on the exercise of these rights”.

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“It hinders the ability of law graduates from other states to join the legal profession in Delhi or NCR, and it limits their ability to form associations with other legal professionals in these areas… changing the address on voter ID card would essentially mean that a law graduate belonging to a place of domicile other than Delhi/ NCR will have to give up their voting rights in their original place of domicile solely on the basis of their employment in a different constituency,” the plea said.

The plea also said that the notification puts a “blanket restriction on enrolment with Bar Council of Delhi” and is “completely silent about the objective” it seeks to achieve from the classification entailed in it.

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