Six years and three deadlines into the verification of law degrees of lawyers, over 20,000 Kerala advocates have excused themselves from the vetting process. The third deadline for the verification process initiated by the Supreme Court in 2016 expired on June 30.
The Bar Council of Kerala (BCK) is unable to check the veracity of the degree certificates of those who gave the process a miss as the certificates are in the lawyers’ custody. The verification can be carried out only in the case of those who have submitted the documents, says BCK chairman K.N. Anilkumar.
Among those who chucked the verification process, some might have quit the legal practice. They may not also be associated with the Bar associations through which the certificates can be submitted for verification. There also exists the possibility of a few others who might have procured bogus certificates skipping the process, he said.
Of the 54,899 active advocates on the rolls of the Bar Council of Kerala (BCK), only 31,436 submitted their law graduation certificates for verification. On its part, the BCK got 21,235 certificates verified by various universities. Till now, only one case of an alleged fake law degree has come to notice. The BCK is in the process of verifying the authenticity of the certificate, he says.
Currently, the names of 64,956 persons feature on the roll of advocates including those who have expired. The BCK will update the list of lawyers which will feature only those who have an active practice in various courts of the State, says Mr. Anilkumar.
A few universities, mostly from Kerala, are yet to complete the verification process in around 3,000 cases. The process got stuck in a few other cases as the universities that issued the certificates ceased to exist. A few others have merged with other universities making the verification process nearly impossible. The BCK will shortly take a call on these cases and report to the apex court, he adds.
