Acting on directions from the Allahabad high court, the Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh asked all bar associations in the state to furnish a list of advocates against whom serious criminal cases are pending or have been registered. The apex body warned that associations failing to comply within the stipulated timeframe risk having their affiliation canceled.
This directive follows a June 3 Allahabad high court order instructing authorities to take appropriate action against advocates facing serious criminal charges. In a notification dated July 23, the Bar Council secretary warned that non-compliance would be treated as disobedience of the court’s order, with a formal report submitted to the high court regarding any defaulting associations.
The high court’s June 3 directive, issued in the case of Mohd Kafeel Vs State of UP (Petition No. 12231 of 2025), specifically instructed the Bar Council to act against lawyers with serious criminal cases pending against them.
In that same order, the HC expressed strong dissatisfaction with a previous report submitted by the Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh, which had identified only 105 lawyers out of 500,000 registered advocates as having enrolled with fake degrees. The court noted: “It must be noted at the outset that this list of merely 105 advocates... appears to be no more than a token and superficial exercise.”