A student of the Tamil Nadu National Law University in Tiruchi has filed a writ petition in the Madras High Court against the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry’s (BCTNP) insistence that law graduates belonging to the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes pay ₹11,100 and others, ₹14,100 to get enrolled with the council before commencing their practice.
Acting Chief Justice (ACJ) T. Raja and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy directed BCTNP counsel M.R. Jothimanian to take notice and file a reply by the second week of June. The judges ordered notices to the Bar Council of India (BCI) and the State government since the legality of such a demand had been questioned, and permitted the petitioner’s counsel R. Alagumani, to take private notices too.
During the course of hearing, the ACJ prima facie agreed with the writ petitioner R. Manimaran, 23, pursuing his fifth year B.A.,LL.B., (Hons) course, that children from the disadvantaged sections of society would find it difficult to pay the enrolment fees of ₹14,100 and ₹11,100. He told the counsel that one of his law clerks himself had told him the enrolment fee was high.
In his affidavit, the student said it was unjust on the part of BCTNP to demand such exorbitant fees from all students without providing any concession when the annual tuition fees itself were not beyond ₹500 in the government law colleges. He said, children of sanitation workers, landless labourers, street vendors, small/marginal farmers and so on could not afford to pay such high enrolment fees.
Referring to Section 24(1)(f) of the Advocates Act of 1961, the petitioner said, the law requires the payment of only ₹600 to the BCTNP and ₹150 to the BCI totaling ₹750 towards enrolment fees. “But in utter disregard to this provision, the respondent number 3 (BCTNP) is seeking a fee as high as ₹14,100 and ₹11,100. It has committed a grave illegal act gravely prejudicial to the legal profession in general and to the concept of social justice in particular,” he said.
The law student also brought it to the notice of the court that apart from the enrolment fees, the BCTNP also collects special fees of ₹10,000 if there was a delay of five to nine years in getting enrolled after completion of the law course, ₹20,00 after 10 years, ₹30,000 from those aged between 45 and 50 years, ₹40,000 from 51 to 55 year old law graduates, ₹50,000 from 56 to 60 year-olds and ₹60,000 from those above 61 years of age.
