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Abhay (ABC)     26 December 2009

Bar Exam for Advocates Practicing License - Right or Wrong??

The Law Ministry is proposing the conduct of a qualifying Bar Exam before any law graduate can get licence to practice in the Courts. Your views sought on this Govt. proposal.

I am not in favour of the qualifying bar exam for the law graduates before getting the advocate's licence for practice. There are two points that I find for not being in favour of this proposal and they are:

1. The government does not trust the quality of law education being imparted in its own Govt. universities which are under its control. The LLB admission eligibility, syllabus, exams, attendance and other aspects of doing law are strictly followed in accordance with the guidelines laid down by the Bar Council of India. The government does not trust the quality parameters set by the Bar Council of India. It is really sad.

2. The law graduates after having worked hard to study and pass the law course for 3 years would be again made to sit for the proposed qualifying exam which would further delay their joining their profession. This qualifying exam would further involve fees and I am sure there would be many coaching institutes which would come up for this purpose further putting the students under financial burden. It is really sad that the govt. instead of simplifying the entire process is bent upon making it more complicated and cumbersome for the students and law aspirants.

If the Govt. is serious about improving the quality of the legal system in India, instead of making it difficult for the law graduates to enter the vocation, what the govt. should do is to weed out the corrupt practices in the legal profession. Every second day we get to hear some senior Judge embroiled in misuse of position for his/her personal gains. There have been various instances reported in the media wherein the lawyers sell out themselves to the opposite parties of their clients. The Govt. should instead plan to take some action on these malpractices instead of targetting the law profession aspirants.

Really unfortunate. The Govt. expects the students to keep giving one exam after the other - first the law entrance exam, then the semester-end/annual exams and other exams and now another qualifying exam. If they are trying to follow the foreign examples, they should follow other good examples also from the west which include more facilities for the practitioners of legal profession. And why just target the legal practitioners for this arbitrary decision, the practitioners of other professions like medicine, etc, should also be subject to such qualifying exams for them to get registered with the MCI.

 

Very arbitrary decision of the Law Ministry which should be opposed tooth and nail and also if need be challenged in the Courts.

 

Your valuable views sought!!!

 

Abhay.



Learning

 38 Replies

S.B.Sharma (President)     26 December 2009

No there is no HARM in taking test before registration in BAR COUNCIL for getting licence to practice.It will be good for all.

PJANARDHANA REDDY (ADVOCATE & DIRECTOR)     26 December 2009

 THE QUALIFIED PERSON CAN ALWAYS GET THROUGH it  ,WHAT IS WRONG ?

Kiran Kumar (Lawyer)     26 December 2009

well there is no big harm in conducting such type of exams, but prior to that the govt. and bar council must ensure that the level of legal education must be same through out the country....if the standards are good then there will be no need of any such kind of test.

 

let there be some written test for the law minister to be appointed, their job is rather more tough :D

1 Like

niranjan (civil practice)     26 December 2009

It is heard that a person who is not competent for anything,is competent tobe advocate.So if the exam.is conducted before sanad is given by the bar council,i think that would raise status of advocates.As I understand,the prestige of advocate has gone done in the society and I have experience that people do not look towards  advocate with respect.i am sorry to say this,but this is true.

Prodyut Banerjee (Advocate (Corporate Lawyer))     26 December 2009

What a "TUGHLAKI" idea. Tomorrow the CS/CA/ICWA/MBBS/ B.E passed candidates will be required to appear for another exam if they want to start their practice.

If the ministry thinks that the standard of the students passing LLB is very low then there are thousands of practicing lawyers who have passed such low standard examination (after all not all practicing lawyers are  from the National Law Schools). Then the exam should be made compulsory for all (all the existing lawyers as well as the new and freash blood trying to enter into legal profession) and not only for the new entrants.

What a joke!!!!!!!! the Govt should increase the standard of law education and examination instead of making such ridiculas rules.

p.sowrirajan (advocate)     27 December 2009

dear viewers

i am on the opinion that there must be all india legal council headed by retired hon'ble judges from supreme court. all law colleges must be affliated to this council.only the council should frame the syllabus common to all in india. the medium of writting the exam must be in english. the answer papers must be corrected any where in india. the resuts must be declared from the council. the results must be similar to the results of charted accpuntants.

only by this system you can get a quality lawyers.

regards

p.sowrirajan

advocate

Gopal Singh ( Advocate)     28 December 2009

There is no harm in conducting such Bar Exams .Govt. has under Legal system given unlimited powers to those who are in fact not conversant with all laws of the land whereas they are given power equal to Civil Judges and even deliver judgement in Camara as Judge.It seems that intent of the Govt. is to allow only those who are wel conversant with Law.It is the practice that only those person are elligible for registration to Bar Council who have passed the final exam of L.L.B.There is no need to take reexamination before the application for Bar Registration. New and Young Lawyers are to be put under guidance of Senior Lawyers (Beyond 15 years of Practice)for few years.This would certainly prove good and healthy Law practice .  


(Guest)

Good idea but it is too late.

 

Again recomendations and corruption play vital role for allotment of practicing licenses to the Advocates.

 

Like junior doctors small case assignments should be gievn to the junior advocates under the guidence of judges of the court with some remunaration from the bar council. All junior advocates get experience and remunaration. 

advocate rajan pandurang joshi (Proprietor)     28 December 2009

I think the right approach would be to have an arrangement that those who desire to profess advocacy are made to under go vigourous training simultaneously as has been prescribed for Doctors, Chartered Accountants, to some extent by Company Secretaries. The growing indisciple in the judicial system is not only harmful to the business of justice but is damaging the society in general. The profession of advocates is noble not only on the qualfication but also on account of sinceirety, honesty, spirit of fighting for justice and not mere getting favourable results. If the esteem of the judiciary and the advocates is to be enhanced, drastice measures need to be taken and trainng while education in LLB faculty would perhaps get dedidcated lawyers in future and perhaps Judges. I would also submit that a time has come that Judges are also required to be trained vigoursly in doing the business of justice as many of them are found lacking not only in their knowledge but also inexperience to handle complex questions of law.

ashwani (#####)     28 December 2009

improve education in collage ---------i dont know why people are thinking that by such hurdle they can improve -----but what they are improving------ if they want to over all development or improvment they should improve educational standard.

Prodyut Banerjee (Advocate (Corporate Lawyer))     29 December 2009

There should be continuas professional development program(minimum program credit of ........ hours per year manadatory) for all advocates as in vouge in case of practicing company secretaries and chartered accountants

Abhay (ABC)     29 December 2009

I thank all the members for their valuable thoughts and contributions.

 

However, I have two/three contentions to this issue:

1. Would it not lengthen the process for a law graduate to enter the profession after passing his final LLB exam. He already has spent 3 years in Graduation and another 3 years in LLB and then this qualifying exam.

2. Would it not put financial burden on the passing out law graduates in the form of exam and preparation fees including the coaching like we have for accountancy.

3. Would this qualifying exam weed out the corruption and instil ethics in the practitioners of this legal profession. What steps does the govt. intend to take to improve the ethics in legal professions because it may happen that the law graduates may qualify this qualifying exams but may lack the ethics to fight for the right cause and also resist the lure of being bought over by the opposite party.

 

Regards,


Abhay

 

P.S. Another related question that can be discussed alongwith the topic is: Whether there should be any age-limit prescribed for entering into this profession as:

a. Some Judges have recommended. I believe law commission has also said something about it.

b. Phasing out 3 year LLB in favour of 5 year LLB which along with upper age limit for entry into 5 year LLB. This would make it impossible for a plain BA/BSc/BCom graduate to enter into the law professional after his graduation in the respective field.

cssree (-)     29 December 2009

How many advocates (who already enrolled) will pass the examination if BCI will do the exam among them?  
10 lakhs advocates already enrolled without any BCI exam. Then how can improve the standard and quality of the advocates by conducting the BCI exam for LLB passed candidates for entrolling as Advocate?
First BCI must do re-registration/re-enrollment of Advocates who already enrolled. For getting re-registration/re-enrollment of present advocates, BCI must conduct exam for them.  Afterwards, BCI can conduct exam for LLB passed students for enrolling as advocate.
 
1 Like

Prodyut Banerjee (Advocate (Corporate Lawyer))     29 December 2009

I completely agree with cssree


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