Will notify rules to set up Bar Council in J&K: Centre to SC

Paving way for a functional Bar body in Jammu and Kashmir, the Centre today told the Supreme Court that it will notify and publish the state Bar council rules in the gazette within four weeks.
A bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice N V Ramana recorded the statement and disposed of a four-year- old PIL filed by senior advocate Bhim Singh on the issue.
"Publish the rules positively within four weeks," it told the Centre.
Earlier, the Bar Council of India (BCI) had submitted in the court that it had approved the Jammu and Kashmir State Bar Council Draft Rules and that these draft rules would be forwarded to the central government for publication in the gazette.

Singh, in his PIL, had prayed for setting up of a state Bar council in Jammu and Kashmir.
The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir has been functioning as the Bar council in accordance with a transitory arrangement provided under Section 58 of the Advocates Act, 1961.
He had alleged that denying the lawyers' fraternity of the state to have a democratically elected Bar council amounted to a violation of fundamental rights under the Constitution as well as the provisions of the Act.