The Kerala High Court recently clarified that there is a duty cast upon the Bar Council to get the certificates of the applicant verified by the concerned Boards and Universities, without charging any fees.

The Writ Appeal before the High Court was submitted by the petitioner challenging an interim order in a Writ Petition by which the petitioner, who sought enrollment with the respondents, was permitted to be enrolled in the next enrollment to be conducted by the respondent – Bar Council of Kerala. This was subject to the condition that the petitioner produced a receipt for the fees paid by him to get his SSLC, Plus Two, Degree and LLB Certificates verified by the concerned Authorities and University.

The Division Bench comprising Justice Ziyad Rahman A.A. and Justice P. V. Balakrishnan held, “...we do not find any entitlement on the part of the 1st respondent to collect the fees for verification.”

Advocate Aslam K.K. represented the Appellant while Senior Advocate K.Jaju Babu represented the Respondent.

The challenge raised by the petitioner against the interim order was confined to the condition imposed to produce the receipt for the fees paid by him for verification of the certificates by placing reliance upon an order passed by the Supreme Court in Ajay Shankar Srivastava v. Bar Council of India and Anr. (2023).

There is a specific direction issued by the Supreme Court to the effect that all Universities and Examination Boards shall verify the genuineness of the educational certificates without charging any fee for the purpose of verification. The Apex Court in its order had also directed that the requisitions made by the Bar Council shall be carried out without undue delay and the reports of verification shall be submitted expeditiously.

The Respondents, however, relied upon a notice issued by the Bar Council of India on January 28, 2017, wherein it is mentioned that the State Bar Council shall charge a sum of Rs.2,500 for the verification of the said certificates from the candidate at the time of submission of the enrollment forms.

On a perusal of the arguments and circumstances of the case, the Bench said, “However, in the light of Ext.P8 order passed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court, there is an obligation on the part of the Universities and Examination Boards to verify the genuineness of the educational certificate without charging any fee for the purpose of verification.”

“Therefore, there is a duty cast upon the Bar Council to get the certificates of the applicant verified by the concerned Boards and Universities, without charging any fees. Therefore, Annexure R1(a), to the extent stipulates the collection of fees of Rs.2,500/- for verification, cannot be implemented”, it added.

The Bench further explained that the Apex Court after specifically referring to the charges stipulated in the BCI notice for verification of the documents, directed that the State Bar Council cannot charge “enrollment fees” beyond the express legal stipulation under Section 24(1)(f) of the Advocates Act, 1961, as it currently stands.

The High Court, thus, didn’t find any entitlement on the part of the 1st respondent to collect the fees for verification.

Therefore, the interim order, passed by the Single Judge, shall stand modified to the effect that the application submitted by the petitioner shall be processed and the 1st respondent shall get his certificates verified by the concerned Boards/Universities without charging any fees.

The Bench thus disposed of the Appeal by further directing, “...the application submitted by the petitioner for enrollment shall be processed by the 1st respondent and the certificates of the petitioner be sent for verification immediately, but the petitioner shall be permitted to get enrolled even if the verification of the certificates of the petitioner is not completed before the enrollment date, subject to the condition that, in case the certificates of the petitioner were found to be not genuine or otherwise not proper, it shall be open for the 1 st respondent to take appropriate action for cancelling the enrollment.”

Cause Title: Alan Benny v. Bar Council of Kerala & Ors. (Neutral Citation: 2024:KER:98018)

Appearance:

Appellants: Advocates Aslam K.K, Akshai M. Sivan, Astel Joseph, Avanthika R., Muhammed Abdul Basith.E.A., Roy Antony

Respondents: Senior Advocate K.Jaju Babu, Advocate M.U.Vijayalakshmi

Click here to read/download Order


Kerala High CourtJustice Ziyad Rahman A.A.Justice P.V. BalakrishnanBar Council of Kerala

Tulip Kanth

Assistant Editor

Tulip Kanth is an Assistant Editor at Verdictum having over 5 years of experience in the field of legal journalism and editing. She extensively covers judgments of the Supreme Court, High Courts as well as Tribunals. She has previously worked with a legal publishing website where she oversaw the work of other editors and has also created updates on notifications of different Government Ministries. She holds an English Honours Degree from SGTB Khalsa College, Delhi University and has completed her LLB course with specialisation in Corporate Law from Amity University.