Submission Of First Degree Certificate Sufficient For Admission To 3-Year LL.B. Course: Karnataka HC

The Karnataka High Court has observed that submission of First Degree Certificate is sufficient or admission to three-year LL.B. course.

The Court was considering a Writ Petition challenging the rejection of Eligibility Certificate of the Petitioner on the ground that in terms of the Government Order the job oriented course could not be considered as equivalent to Pre-University course.

The single-bench of Justice Suraj Govindaraj observed, "In that view of the matter, I am of the considered opinion that there is no particular lacuna as contended by Sri. Girish Kumar, insofar as admission to a three year Law Degree course is concerned, since, what is required as per the proviso is that the candidate should have First Degree certificate, the reference being made earlier to Higher Secondary pass certificate would be irrelevant so long as the candidates were to have a Degree issued by an University as indicated and referring to clause (a) of Rule 5."

The Petitioner was represented by Advocate K. Prasanna Shetty while the Respondent was represented by Additional Government Advocate R.K. Pratibha.

Counsel for the Petitioner submitted that the job oriented course certificate, which had been issued to the Petitioner was accepted to be a proper eligibility for the petitioner to take up his B.Com course, which was also completed by the petitioner. The requirement for being admitted into the law course is 10+2+3year degree and the petitioner having qualified in both the aspects, it was but required for the respondent University to issue the eligibility certificate and the college to admit the petitioner into the three year law course. He further submitted that the job-oriented course certification sufficiently applies for any further education the respondent-University could not have denied the admission of the Petitioner to the first year of the 3 year LL.B. course.

Counsel for the Respondent, on the other hand, relied on a notification submitted that the job oriented course could not be held to be a equivalent for 10+2 without the petitioner having taken up a 'language' in the said course and in that regard. He submitted that in the instructions issued by the Bar Council of India, the JOC has not been held to be equivalent to 10+2 and what has been mentioned by the Bar Council of India is 10+2+3 year degree and it is for that reason that 10+2 has been regarded by the University to be either 10+2 CBSE/ICSE or PUC under the said syllabus and the other courses are not regarded to be equivalent to 10+2.

The Court was to decide whether the job oriented course taken up by the petitioner would be equivalent to 10+2 as mentioned by the Bar Council of India Rules under Rule 5?

It inferred that the proviso indicates that if the First Degree certificate has been issued, the question of reference of +2 Higher secondary Pass Certificate would not arise, since the word used is 'or' which is disjunctive. So long as the First Degree certificate is available, the question of reference to +2 Higher Secondary Pass Certificate would not arise in terms of the proviso to Rule 5 of the Bar Council of India Rules.

"Insofar as three years' LL.B. Course is concerned, what is required is First Degree certificate and as indicated above, if the candidate were to have a degree, which is considered to be First Degree, then the candidate would be eligible for being admitted into a three year LL.B. course," the Court observed.

It was of the view that the University can't insist on +2 Higher Secondary Pass certificate if First Degree certificate is produced.

"In the present case, the petitioner having done his job oriented course, the Job Oriented course was regarded to be eligibility enough for the petitioner to take up his B.Com course, which has been completed by the petitioner and the Degree in B.Com has been awarded to the petitioner, which would mean the First Degree certificate as contained and referred to in the proviso to Rule 5. That being so, in my considered opinion, reference to +2 Higher Secondary Pass certificate would not arise," the Court observed.

The Petition was accordingly allowed.

Cause Title: Rakesh Shetty vs. The State of Karnataka (2024:KHC:50647)

Appearances:

Petitioner- Advocate K. Prasanna Shetty

Respondent- Additional Government Advocate R.K. Pratibha, Advocate Girish Kumar

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