Kerala High Court directs State Bar Council to process enrolment of 1995 evening college LL.B graduate

The Kerala High Court on Wednesday granted interim relief to a retired government employee who completed his LL.B degree through evening college in 1995, after the Bar Council of Kerala had denied him enrollment citing the nature of his degree. [PS Vijayakumaran v. Union of India & ors]

Justice Easwaran S admitted the petition filed by PS Vijayakumaran and issued an interim direction to the Bar Council of Kerala to accept his enrollment application and process it immediately.

The Court further directed the Council not to insist on the payment of any optional fees in view of an earlier Supreme Court ruling in KLJA Kiran Babu v. Karnataka State Bar Council Contempt Petition.

"Admit. Interim direction to the 4th respondent to receive the application for enrollment submitted by the petitioner and process the same. There will be a further direction to the respondent not to insist any optional fees as ordered by the Supreme Court," the Court added.

The petitioner had approached the Court after his application for enrollment was blocked on the Council's online portal, citing the Bar Council of India Rules of Legal Education, 2008, which did not recognise evening law courses.

He argued that denying him enrolment was arbitrary and violative of his fundamental rights under Articles 14 (right to equality),  19(1)(g) (right to practice a profession) and 21 (right to life) of the Constitution.

Apart from recognition of his degree, the petitioner had also challenged the ₹60,400 enrolment fee levied by the Council, which included ₹25,000 as a special fee for retired employees, ₹15,000 for applying more than ten years after graduation and ₹19,450 as optional fees.

He had submitted that the Advocates Act, 1961 under Section 24(1)(f) prescribed only ₹750 as the statutory fee and that any higher levy was illegal and unconstitutional.

The petitioner had also highlighted his financial status, pointing out that his wife was undergoing cancer treatment requiring medicines worth over ₹85,000 per month and that the denial of enrollment was affecting his family's livelihood.

Taking note of these submissions, the Court directed the Council to accept and process the petitioner's application without insisting on payment of optional fees.

Advocates PV Uttara and Samah Abdul Majid appeared for the petitioner.

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