Bar Council of Delhi dissolved over issues in verifying members

A three-member committee is being formed instead to ensure accurate verification of lawyers’ work and educational credentials.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has dissolved the Bar Council of Delhi (BCD), after observing repeated delays in the verification of credentials of its members, impacting the efforts to weed out illegal lawyers practising in the city.

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In an order passed on October 10, the principal secretary of BCI, Srimanto Sen, said that despite repeated extensions and advisories issued since August 2023, the state bar council has failed to meet the deadline for providing verified data and rectifying mismatches in data of lawyers.

As a result, a three-member committee is being formed instead to ensure accurate verification of lawyers’ work and educational credentials. Subsequently, only verified advocates will be allowed to enrol in the voters’ list for next year’s state bar council elections, the order stated.

To be sure, the Supreme Court, through an order passed on September 24 in a writ petition of 2023, directed that elections to all state bar councils be completed by January 31, 2026.

Notably, the special committee will comprise additional solicitor general of India Chetan Sharma, senior advocate Maninder Singh, and president of the central Delhi court bar association Neeraj.

“It (committee) shall oversee verification and preparation of the electoral roll and shall conduct the election within the time frame fixed by the Supreme Court. A returning officer and an observer will be nominated by the Bar Council of India in accordance with the rules and will work with the special committee,” the order mentioned.

When asked about the verification, advocate Surya Prakash Khatri, until recently the chairman of the BCD, told HT, “We had sought an extension from BCI regarding verification of lawyers…however, around 90,000 out of the total 200,000 have been verified so far.”

Khatri said that BCD was in favour of expediting lawyer credential verification and holding elections. “Since the Supreme Court’s orders are in fray, the BCI is empowered to take the decision they have and is now responsible for holding the elections…we have no opposition to the order.”

Advocate Ved Prakash Sharma, co-chairman of BCI, said, “The move is aimed at the BCI’s efforts to identify fake lawyers in the profession and ensure enrolment of only verified candidates for the state bar council polls…the decision was taken as there are around 90,000 more registered lawyers whose credentials need to be cross-checked…the backlog would not have taken place if BCD would have verified the degrees of lawyers who registered with them on a simultaneous basis.”

Advocate Rahul Sharma, who is contesting in next year’s election for the post of BCD member, said, “BCD should have held the elections in 2023 itself and not sought any extensions…the last election took place in 2019 and this time too, the elections are being carried out on the instructions of Supreme Court and not the bar council….the election’s tenure should be abided by.”