The Madras High Court Bench here has rejected a plea to direct Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to enrol, as an advocate, a woman law graduate who had completed her course at the Government Law College here in May 2013 but was facing two criminal cases in which Madurai city police had charge sheeted her.
Earlier order
Disposing of a writ petition filed by the law graduate, a Division Bench of Justices S. Manikumar and G. Chockalingam said that while dealing with a case related to entry of criminals in the legal profession, a single judge of the court on August 11, 2014 had passed an interim order restraining the Bar Council from enrolling law graduates with criminal background irrespective of the fact as to whether they had either disclosed or suppressed details of the criminal cases against them.
Writing the judgement for the Bench, Mr. Justice Manikumar also said: “Notwithstanding the views expressed here and with due respect to the learned judge, we only wish to observe that reading of Section 24A of the Advocates Act, 1961 provides for disqualification only in the case of conviction for an offence involving moral turpitude and for other offences listed out in the Section.”
Hence, the Division Bench gave liberty to the petitioner to approach the single judge seeking modification of the order.
Case hearing restrained
She had reportedly filed separate petitions in the High Court with a plea to quash the two cases pending against her before a Judicial Magistrate Court here on the basis of the charge sheets filed by Tallakulam police and obtained an interim order restraining the Magistrate from proceeding further.
