HC directive to TN Bar Council for suspension of lawyers

The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court has directed the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu to suspend lawyers, who got admission into law colleges after 2009, if they had violated rules governing admission and enrolment and dismiss them after inquiry.
Justice N Kirubakaran in an interim order said Rule 28 of Legal Education mentioned about the ceiling of the age for getting admission into law college.
If the candidates got admission into law colleges in violation of the rules including Rule 28, they were not entitled to get enrolment.
"If anybody got enrolled, the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu has got power to take action, including suspension, and removal as per law," the judge said.

"By the same provision, the council has got incidental, subsidiary and implied power to suspend and cancel enrolment in case violation or misconduct," the judge said.
"Even if it is not provided under the act, by virtue of Sec 15 of the General Clauses act 1897, the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu has got power," the judge said.

The order was passed on a petition by advocate V Ramesh who alleged that LLB degrees were being sold and bought for a "meagre price" in universities in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
The high court had earlier issued notice admitting the petition which sought to prevent LLB degree holders of other states from practising in Tamil Nadu.

It had ruled that the fate of law graduates waiting to enrol in Tamil Nadu with LLB degrees would be subject to the result of a writ petition.