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.
