A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed 15 days’ time for lawyers to cure the defective applications and has asked all such advocates to submit their complete application forms for necessary verification of their degrees if they have not submitted the same earlier, from the date of publication of advertisement in two leading newspapers, one in English language and the other in two leading newspapers, one in English language and the other in regional language having wide circulation in the respective State/Union Territories, for which advertisement shall be published within 7 days from Wednesday.
A bench of Justices RK Agrawal and Abhay Manohar Sapre also directed the Bar Councils to verify the applications within one month time, without any charge, after the expiry of the above 15 (fifteen) days.
Earlier, The Apex court has directed to transfer all the connected matters which are pending in different High Courts in connection with the matter in question for hearing.
The petitioners requested the Court to direct the Bar Councils to conduct election on an urgent basis since the the term has expired long back whereas the Bar Council of India is pressing for the need of verification of the candidates to eliminate fake lawyers in order to bring improvement in the Bar and to get deserving practicing advocates for the respective Bar Councils.
The Bench has directed the Bar Council of India to declare the schedule of elections in respective State Bar Councils to be held after the expiry of 75 (seventy five) days.
The bench further directed the BCI to request a retired Judge of the Supreme Court in order to control and supervise the verification process and preparation of Electoral Rolls.
The matter was further posted to January 2018.
Read the Full Text of the Order Below
