SC: NO AGE BAR TO PRACTISE LAW
The Supreme Court on 11.11.2014 said an emphatic no to any rule that sets an upper age limit for law graduates to enroll as lawyers and thereby puts brakes on career prospects for those who want to take up legal profession after retirement or resignation.
A bench of Chief Justice of India H L Dattu and Justice A K Sikri quashed a batch of appeals by various state bar councils, which had framed rules to fix 45 as the upper age limit for enrollment as advocates.
“How can this be done? Lot of people enroll as lawyers after retirement or after their resignation. In fact, I know about one person in Karnataka who was under suspension and he started practising law. He turned out to be one of the best lawyers in the state. These things do happen,” observed the bench.
Appearing for the Bar Council of India (BCI), advocate Ardhendumauli Kumar Prasad sought to convince the bench that the upper age limit of 45 could bring in uniformity in professional practice across the states. Prasad said such a rule would upkeep the professional standards and protect the interests of lawyers.
Similarly, lawyers from bar councils of Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana also pointed out that this restriction would help maintain the standards of education since several candidates used to get a law degree while continuing in other services, without formal or basic education.
The bench, however, remained unimpressed with these contentions and said it was witnessed often that many persons above 45 years in age had excelled in the profession and the young lawyers had a lot to learn from them.
The court also took note of the fact that Parliament had fixed no upper age limit for pursuing law course and, therefore, the state bar councils appeared to create a distinction between two similarly placed persons without any authority to do so.
The court was examining the constitutional validity of the rules framed by state bar councils, which virtually prevented several law graduates, who take up employment, to enroll themselves as lawyers either after retirement or on resignation.
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