Kerala bar council

The Kerala high court has admitted a retired postal service official’s challenge to the Kerala bar council rules, reported the New Indian Express.

The rules prescribe advocate enrolment fee in excess of that prescribed in the Advocates Act 1961, in case the advocates seeking enrolment have retired from a job.

In his petition, the petitioner T Koshi stated that the Kerala bar council had illegally hiked the fee for enrollment through amendment in its rules with complete disregard to the Advocates Act passed by the Parliament.

The Act has fixed the enrolment amount to be Rs 600 for general category and Rs 100 for scheduled castes and tribes, according to the report.

A committee has been constituted by the bar council to look into the matter and submit a report to the court.

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The Kerala bar council is discussing plans to ban all lawyers from talking to the media about their own cases under the anti-advertising rule 36 of the Bar Council of India (BCI) Rules, which could be implemented after a meeting soon, reported the Deccan Chronicle.

The rule states that advocates must not solicit or advertise, and “not promote himself by circulars, advertisements, touts, personal communications, interviews other than through personal relations, furnishing or inspiring newspaper comments or producing his photographs to be published in connection with cases in which he has been engaged or concerned”.

Proceedings in the Kerala high court are currently ongoing to ban open court reporting by media, while former Chief Justice of India (CJI) and current Kearala governor P Sathasivam said last week that if journalists always read judgments first, there shouldn’t be any reason to ban court reporting.

The Kerala bar council's disciplinary committee has stayed an advocate's professional misconduct suspension for two months after an appeal by the advocate, against whom the bar council handed down a one year suspension for "proved misconduct" of a very serious nature for cheating the complainants in a land deal, "failing to uphold professional dignity" and neglecting his professional duty.

The New Indian Express reported that the Kottarakkara-based advocate also faced "other allegations" and was "involved in a criminal case", but he claimed that the allegations were false and he shouldn't be suspended. The disciplinary committee seemed to agree with, at least temporarily, according to the stay

The Kerala bar council has suspended a lawyer for “professional misconduct” after “indulging in business activities apart from being an advocate”.