Nearly half the number of Kerala lawyers enrolled with the Bar Council of Kerala (BCK) have skipped the verification of their law degree certificates. The Supreme Court-set deadline for verification ended on November 30.
Of the 50,000 lawyers on the rolls of the BCK, only 20,000 have submitted their certificates. While 2,533 lawyers on the list opted for suspending their practice, 339 lawyers expired. The certificates received were being send for verification to the universities concerned, K. Ajayan, secretary, BCK, said.
Those at the Bar Council of India (BCI) had been ruing that nearly 45 per cent of the lawyers in the country were fake. It is expected that the real number of practising lawyers would come down to nearly 60 per cent of the existing number after the verification. It was nearly two years ago that the BCI initiated the vetting process.
In 2012, the number of lawyers in India was around 14 lakh. A nationwide verification process was expected to drive fake lawyers out of court rooms, sources said.
Kerala scenario
There were earlier complaints that at least one-fourth of Kerala lawyers were not into legal practice but chose other professions.
Analysing the Kerala data, Mr. Ajayan felt that almost 95 per cent of the lawyers with active courtroom practice have submitted their documents.
Law students who have graduated after the 2009-10 academic year need not submit the education certificates for verification as they have to appear for the All India Bar Examination conducted by the BCI for practising law. However, their qualifying certificates should be submitted to the BCK for verification. There would be around 8,000 such new lawyers, he said.
Financial burden
Meanwhile, the verification process would land the BCK in financial distress as the universities are demanding Rs.1,000 a certificate as fee. While the BCK is collecting just 200 from a lawyer, the verification process would cost the BCK around Rs.20 lakh. There is no word from universities on when the verification process would be completed, Mr. Ajayan said.
The BCK has forwarded the first batch of around 3,000 certificates to the University of Kerala for verification. The second batch of another 5,000 certificates will be send soon. Another 5,000 certificates were forwarded to the University of Calicut.
Then there are a large number of law graduates from the universities of Bangalore, Pune, Goa, and Mangalore, he said.
