BCI moves Supreme Court for increase in enrolment fee, highlights financial crunch

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has filed an application before the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Central government to amend the Advocates Act, 1961 so that the fee for enrolment of lawyers with State Bar Councils may be enhanced. .The top court in July last year had ruled that State Bar Councils and the BCI cannot charge enrolment fees in excess of the limit prescribed by the Advocates Act. This meant that Bar Councils can only charge ₹750 from general category candidates and ₹125 from Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribe candidates for enrolment.The judgment was passed in a case in which concerns were raised about high enrolment fees set by various State Bar Councils including Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh..The BCI has now submitted that the enrolment fee happens to be the main source of income for Bar Councils.Without such income, the functioning of the Bar Councils would become difficult as they would not be able to clear the salary of their staff or pay other charges, the BCI said."It is also an admitted fact that if the State Bar Councils are restrained from charging anything more than Rs.600/- today; naturally the Bar Councils and the Bar Council of India would die their own death; their survival would not only be difficult rather impossible," the BCI's plea added. .The BCI has, therefore, called for a suitable amendment to the Advocates Act to allow an increase in enrolment fees beyond the limit presently set by the Act. The BCI added that the statutory enrolment fee was last increased in 1993. Despite rising inflation levels, there has been no further change in the past three decades, the BCI said. "An item that would cost Rs.100/- in the year 1960 would cost Rs.7804.85 at the beginning of the year 2022. In the year 2023 the inflation rate was identified as 5.8%. If the said concept and understanding is implemented the enrolment fee that needs to be charged at present would be around Rs.50,000/," it has argued..The BCI had earlier written to the Central government to amend the Advocates Act and revise the enrolment fee for general category candidates to ₹25,000 and the Bar Council of India fund fee to ₹6,250.For the SC/ST students, it demanded that the enrolment fee be ₹10,000 towards the State Bar Council and ₹2,500 to the Bar Council of India. The BCI also sought liberty to revise these fees to account for future inflation, based on the Reserve Bank of India's inflation calculator.