SC to decide: Can priests nuns enrol as advocates?

Can Christian priests and nuns enroll as advocates? Would they not be disqualified under the Advocates Act? These questions will now be answered conclusively by the Supreme Court. This follows the apex court admitting a petition today, which was filed by the Bar Council of India BCI challenging an order of the Kerala High Court, which on March 21 this year had ruled in favour of the clergy. A Bench of Justice B.N. Agrawal and Justice P.P. Naolekar also issued notices to the respondents P.C. Thomas alias Father Thomas Puddussery, Kerala Bar Council and the Enrollment Committee of the State Bar Council. The court, however, declined to stay the March 21 order saying the question of law raised in the appeal needed to be settled conclusively. Whether it was stayed or not, a final decision had to be taken, the Bench observed. BCI in its appeal said the HC had failed to appreciate that priesthood was a profession and under rules framed by the state Bar Council and Advocates Act, a person already in another profession was not entitled to be enrolled as an advocate. Canon law, it said, understands nuns and priests as a profession of full time nature. The BCI claimed that the High Court had erred in not appreciating that priests and nuns had different control and commitments. 8216;8216;Though they remain as ordinary human beings, they cease to be a civil person by their convention as priests or nuns by undergoing that ceremony. Hence, under the Canon law they shall not have the liberty to enroll as advocates. The canon law understands nuns and priests as a profession of full time nature,8217;8217; it said.