Increase enrolment fees for law graduates, Bar Council co-chairman urges Centre

The co-chairman of the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry (BCTNP), K. Balu, has urged the Union government to amend the Advocates Act of 1961 during the forthcoming winter session of Parliament, scheduled from December 1, and increase the enrolment fees that could be collected by Bar Councils from law graduates.

In an identical letter addressed to Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal as well as the Bar Council of India (BCI), Mr. Balu, also the chairman of BCTNP’s enrolment committee, said, it was imperative to revise the current enrolment fees of ₹125 from Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe applicants and ₹750 from others.

He said, the fees were revised last in 1993 and remain unaltered for over three decades though the administrative expenses and regulatory responsibilities of the State-level Bar Councils, before accepting fresh law graduates in its rolls, had increased manifold, leading to considerable expenditure towards those tasks.

Stating that Bar Councils do not receive any financial grant either from the Union or State governments, he said, nevertheless, the statutory bodies had to incur heavy costs towards staff salaries, maintenance of infrastructure, verification of criminal antecedents of applicants, digital record keeping, and so on.

Section 24(1)(f) of the Advocates Act states that SC/ST applicants must pay an enrolment fee of ₹100 to the State Bar Councils and ₹25 to the BCI. Similalrly, all other applicants were required to pay ₹600 to the State Bar Councils and ₹150 to the BCI. This amount was too low, Mr. Balu complained.

He also pointed out that the Supreme Court had in Gaurav Kumar versus Union of India (2024) ordered that Bar Councils should not collected any amount beyond what had been prescribed under the 1961 Act. Therefore, there was a compelling necessity to immediately amend the legislation, the letter stated.