An advocate has moved the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court seeking a direction to the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and police authorities to ensure that there is a strict verification process in place to weed out fake advocates and maintain the dignity and decorum of the legal profession.
A Division Bench of Justices M. Duraiswamy and K. Murali Shankar ordered notice to the Bar Council and police authorities on the petition filed by S. Muthukumar of Madurai. The petitioner said the standard of the legal profession was deteriorating. If this went unchecked it would affect judicial institution. There was a need to frame proper guidelines to verify the antecedents of advocates, he said.
To check the genuineness of an advocate, there must be a proper mechanism to verify his details and enrolment particulars. The absence of such a mechanism would result in impairing the justice delivery system, he said.
The petitioner said people managed to get law degrees without attending classes. These fake degree holders were conducting kangaroo courts and indulging in other unethical practices. The case was adjourned by six weeks.
