LiveLaw reported that the Kerala high court stayed the operation of the Bar Council of India’s (BCI) Certificate and Place of Practice (Verification) Rules 2015 that it first proposed in January of this year, which requires advocates to register for a practising certificate by 13 June 2015, which must be renewed every five years.

Livelaw reported that:

The interim order staying the operation of the Rules was passed by Justice K Vinod Chandran in a Writ Petition filed by an advocate from Trivandrum challenging the constitutionality and validity of the ‘Certificate and Place of Practice Rules, 2015’ (hereinafter referred to as “the Rules”). The Writ Petition settled by Senior Advocate K Ramakumar claims that the Rules impose unreasonable restrictions on the advocates to continue with their practice and that being so, the Rules are violative of Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India besides being wholly without jurisdiction.

The case reference is Writ Petition 17467 of 2015 but the order was not uploaded on the website at the time of going to press.

The Times of India reported the petition but not the interim stay order.