Meet the 26 year-old who moved Supreme Court against ‘exorbitant’ bar council fees

NEW DELHI: When Gaurav Kumar decided to challenge the high enrolment fees charged by state bar councils in the Supreme Court, his friends and peers discouraged him. Some lawyers he approached for support turned him down. “Many people refused to file the petition. I also received pressure from several state bar councils who might go against me. People were asking, “How can you be against your institution?,” he said.

Kumar, 26, belongs to Itahari village in Munger district, Bihar. He graduated from Surendranath Law College affiliated to Calcutta University in 2021. From a farming family with five other siblings, he struggled to pay the Rs 15,300 that Delhi Bar Council charges and enrolled in 2022, after borrowing from friends and family. “If I faced this problem, imagine so many others must be facing these every year,” he stated.

On July 30, the Supreme Court ruled against the “exorbitant” fees charged by state bar councils (SBC) across the country, bringing relief to young law graduates like Kumar. The verdict stated that state bar councils cannot charge “enrollment fees” beyond the amount mentioned in the Advocates Act 1961. After the SC ruling, on August 7, the Delhi Bar Council resumed enrolment at the much-reduced fee of Rs 750.

“The Advocates Act clearly says that respective state bar councils can only charge Rs 650 as an enrollment fee for the general and OBC category and Rs 125 for ST-SC candidates,” stated Kumar. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are historically-marginalised communities. However, more than around 22 state bar councils, including Delhi, Odisha, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Tamil Nadu, have been charging thousands as enrollment fees from young law graduates.

Another advocate who helped Kumar stated that the Odisha Bar Council is charging high fees – Rs 42,000 – but the state also has the second-lowest per capita income in the country, after Bihar. “If the state of Odisha has such high fees at the state bar council, where will the fresh graduates go?” he said, asking not to be named.

State bar council fees

State bar council fees can be a barrier to practising law for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. “After graduation, if a law graduate wants to practise law, they have to enrol in a state bar council before appearing for the All India Bar Council Examination,” explained the second advocate. In other words, bar council enrolment is a necessary prerequisite for writing the AIBE.

Also, the fees are not uniform. Orissa Bar Council charges Rs 42,000 as enrollment fees; Bihar Bar Council charges Rs 35,000; Madhya Pradesh, Rs 20,000; Maharashtra and Gujarat, Rs 25,000.

Across the states, bar councils charge “miscellaneous” fees – secretary fees, advocates’ welfare fund, administrative charges, registration fees, development, establishment, administrative and ID card fees. Even the apex court ruled that the fees charged by state bar councils are “arbitrary” and are in violation of Article 14 which states equality before the law and Article 19 (1) (g) which gives fundamental rights to every citizen to practise any profession under the Constitution, said Kumar.

“An average enrollment fee for any state bar council is around Rs 15,000 - 20,000,” he continued. “And if a law graduate has studied in the government college and has paid Rs 8,500 overall for their course, how will they pay such high fees?”

The SC had also received many student petitions against the high enrollment fees.

Bar council fee: Facilities ‘on paper’

While the bar councils charge for a variety of facilities and functions, young lawyers don’t really have access to them, argued Kumar.

“There is no such training or legal awareness activities or library or other facilities provided or conducted by the state bar council, but all this is charged within the enrollment fees,” he said. “All the services and facilities are on paper and not in practice. My demand was that the state bar council cannot charge it as a mandatory enrollment fee for fresh graduates,” said Kumar.

As Careers360 has previously reported, a fresh law graduate’s income is uncertain and many who don’t come from families of lawyers see years of struggle and poor pay. “Just after graduating, there is no fixed income,” explained Kumar. “The council doesn't provide any welfare scheme to us. How will these fresh law graduates survive when you become an advocate?”

During the hearing, the Bar Council of India had countered the allegations in the petition saying that the councils discharge several functions mandated under the Act, hence the high fees.

“According to data furnished by the ministry of law, in total there are 1,721 law colleges in India including public and private. And as per BCI, around 80,000 to 1 lakh new advocates get enrolled annually. However, many are not able to pursue it due to the high compounding fees of state bar councils, different law associations across states and districts, etc. These high fees are a barrier for many young graduates to practise,” he stated.

Kumar said that if the state bar council wants to raise the fees, the parliament has the authority to do so; if parliament feels there is an appropriate demand, they can raise the fees.