Fake lawyers to be identified in seven months: Bar Council of India to Centre

NEW DELHI: The Bar Council of India has informed the government that so far it has not been able to identify the number of " fake lawyers" but it will be able to do so in the next seven months.

Law Minister D V Sadananda Gowda in a written reply Lok Sabha said that the Council has informed that "the number of fake lawyers cannot be exactly ascertained by now."

The BCI said it has introduced an "exhaustive" mechanism/procedure for ascertaining the number and identity of "fake or non-practicing" lawyers. For the purpose it has framed Bar Council of India Certificate and Place of Practice (Verification) Rules, 2015.

The rules, Gowda said, will help check and stop the "occurrence of the use of such fake degrees or to stop the non-practicing persons enrolled with the State Bar councils from getting benefits."

He said the entire verification process will be completed and fake lawyers identified within a period of 6-7 months.

The government's reply came days after BCI Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra is reported to have said in Chennai that 30 per cent of all lawyers in India are fake.

Speaking at Lawyers Meet-2015, organised by BCI in Chennai late last month, Mishra said the council, which is statutorily empowered to discipline errant lawyers and take action against them, was in the process of weeding them out.

Mishra had blamed such lawyers for strikes and boycotts being witnessed in various courts for petty and frivolous issues.