CHENNAI : The candidates, who have obtained the three-year LLB degree from a university established by statute, recognised by the University Grants Commission (UGC), and approved by the affiliated Centre of Legal Education/ Departments of the recognised University as approved by the Bar Council of India for the purpose of enrolment, after graduating from universities established by statute by studying the regular Bachelor’s degree courses, shall not be refused enrolment.
“Once a degree is found authentic, it is not for the Bar Council to go behind the degree and enquire into the eligibility of the candidates to take admission in the university,” a full bench of the Madras High Court has said.The special bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee, Justices R Subbiah and Abdul Quddhose gave the ruling on Monday while allowing a batch of writ petitions challenging the action of the TN Bar Council refusing to enrol them as lawyers.
All applications for enrolment shall be dealt with expeditiously, preferably within three months, the bench said. In exceptional circumstances, where the genuineness of a degree in itself is in doubt and the degree is from a university located in a different State or Union Territory far away from Chennai, the verification may take a month or two more, the bench added. The Bar Council has refused to enrol the candidates as lawyers as they had studied class 10 and 12 privately.
The bench said that the language and tenor of Rules 5(a) and 5(b) of the Advocates Act, 1961 read with the first proviso and the explanation make it amply clear that prosecution of a regular course is mandatory only for the immediately previous qualifying certificate and/or degree, for example, graduate degree for the three-year LLB course.
HC directs law university to admit student
Chennai: Holding that studying in the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), Triplicane will not be a bar for seeking admission in law course, the first bench of the Madras High Court has directed Dr Ambedkar Law University in RA Puram to admit a student. By an order dated June 27, 2017, the college registrar had refused admission to Rahul R Vaithinathan of T Nagar in the first-year law course on the ground that he had pursued his schooling in the National Institute of Open Schooling, which is not recognised.