SC asks universities not to charge for lawyers verification

The Supreme Court today asked all universities not to charge any fee for verification of lawyers as mandated in the Bar Council of India Certificate and Place of Practice (Verification) Rules 2015.
A bench of Justices P C Ghose and R F Nariman said this after senior counsel K K Venugopal, representing BCI, informed the court that universities were demanding upto Rs 2,000 per person for verification of advocates.
The apex court had earlier said it would hear all the universities in the matter relating to challenge to the BCI Rules which mandate verification of lawyers.
It listed the matter for further hearing on March 21.

The court is hearing a batch of pleas challenging the 2015 Rules making it mandatory for all lawyers to undergo verification drive to check professional credentials of practicing advocates.
BCI, the apex bar body, has undertaken the verification drive to weed out law practitioners with fake law degrees.
The BCI had in 2015 amended the rules for the verification process to filter out fake advocates among over 15 lakh practising laywers in the country.
BCI Certificate and Place of Practice (Verification) Rules 2015 makes it mandatory for all lawyers to re-register in a new format where they have to compulsorily submit all their certificates, starting from class X board results.