Uttarakhand High Court notice to Bar Council on enrolment fee

     Dehradun, Jul 28 (PTI) The Uttarakhand High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the state Bar Council and others for charging high registration fee from law graduates for enrolment as advocates.
     Chief Justice R S Chauhan and Justice Alok Kumar Verma issued the notices to the Bar Council of Uttarakhand, Bar Council of India, Union of India and State of Uttarakhand, directing them to file their replies within four weeks.
     The notices were issued on a PIL challenging the validity of the Bar Council of Uttarakhand rules which levy exorbitantly high registration fees on law graduates for enrolment as advocates in violation of section 24(1) (f) of the Advocates Act 1961.
     The PIL has been filed by a Dehradun-based social service organisation, called Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra, its counsel Kartikey Hari Gupta said.
     Section 24(1) (f) of the Advocates Act, 1961 says only Rs 750 should be charged as registration fee for enrolment as an advocate but the Bar Council of Uttarakhand is charging Rs 18,650 from general category candidates, Rs 15,525 from reserved category candidates, Rs 38,650 from those above 40 and Rs 33,650 from women above 40, the petition said.
     Charging exorbitant fee is not allowed by the Advocates Act, 1961. The purpose of charging only Rs 750 as enrolment fee was to keep it uniform and affordable for all throughout the country, the petition said. PTI ALM RDK
RDK

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)