Reconsider Upper Age Limit For Admission To LL.B. Courses, SC To Bar Council Of India [Read Order]

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court directed the Bar Council of India to rethink, after listening to the diverse stakeholders, the top age restrict for taking admission to the five-yr and 3-year law degree courses. The bench headed through Justice SA Bobde changed into listening to a plea by using Rishab Duggal for setting apart a 2016 round via which the BCI had restored Clause 28 in Schedule III of Rule 11 of the Rules of Legal Education, 2008 (that became earlier withdrawn in 2013), which arbitrarily provides for a maximum age restriction of as low as twenty years for taking admission inside the incorporated bachelor of the law degree program.

While both Justice Bobde and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul were of the view that there’s no particular age to gather training, Justice Kaul determined that humans from economically-weaker sections may not have linear schooling and can grow to be being older than other college students and so must now not be disadvantaged of the opportunity.

The recommendation for the petitioner, Advocate Zoheb Hossain, stated the instance of a 70-12 months old Chinese farmer who pursued a law degree to sue a country-owned employer who had wrongfully acquired his land. “There are women who determine to take in regulation professionally after elevating their youngsters, or even folks that make mid-profession adjustments,” he made his case. The 2017 privateness judgment in Justice K. S. Puttaswamy changed into relied on to argue that the proper to select one’s career is an issue of preference and privateness, being a traveling right, is also violated by this Age restriction of 20 years for the five-12 months program and 30 years for the three-yr route. In the petition, it’s been submitted that the impugned provision violates the fundamental rights of aspiring regulation students underneath Articles 14, 19(1)(g), and 21 of the Constitution. The plea avers that during a comparable pass in the yr 1993, the BCI had delivered Rule nine-under Chapter III of Part VI of the BCI Rules, barring those persons who have completed 45 years of age from enrolling an Advocate under the Advocates Act, 1961.

The stated Rule nine was challenged earlier than the Apex Court within the case of Indian Council of Legal Aid & Advice v. BCI where it turned into struck down- “Therefore, the advent of a rule unreasonably restricting the admission to the regulation publications itself being a harsher and an excellent more unreasonable limit at the rights of aspiring law students is contrary to the precept and ratio laid down by using this Hon’ble Court in Indian Council of Legal Aid & Advice,” it becomes contended. Further, it’s far talked about that because of the Conflicting judgments exceeded by way of one-of-a-kind High Courts in writ petitions tough the validity of the stated clause, the interference of the pinnacle Court is imperative to make certain truth in the lives of college students and consistency within the technique of the BCI- even as the Punjab & Haryana and the Bombay High Courts have declared the clause to extremely vire the provisions of the Advocates Act, the Madras High Court has upheld the age-restriction.