The Delhi Bar Council recently released a notification vide which only candidates having Voter ID Cards / Aadhar Cards having a Delhi NCR address will be considered eligible for the purposes of enrollment.

This move is a significant departure from the subsisting practice of considering a valid rent agreement as sufficient proof of residence.

For a law graduate keen on practising in the courts of Delhi, but having a permanent residence in some other state, this move is a hammer blow. The earlier practice of accepting a valid rent agreement as proof of residence is sufficient to curtail the enrollment of law graduates who have no intention of carrying out their practice in Delhi.

Bar councils should always be seen as Bar Monopoly Councils. Save for once in a blue moon, they work on for the bar, but for the current monopoly.