The Bar Council of India has passed a resolution making it mandatory for lawyers to renew their sanads (licence to practise) every five years.
The decision, taken on June 1, is to ensure that lawyers don't get engaged in private services, said Manan Kumar Mishra, BCI chairman, at a press conference here on Wednesday.
As per the resolution, lawyers will have to pay Rs 600 as renewal fees within six months, otherwise they will not be entitled to practise in the country.
According to Mishra, a large number of lawyers do private services, businesses, etc after obtaining sanads from the respective state bar councils. This should stop as the councils were facing difficulty in implementing welfare schemes for practicing lawyers.
The BCI is the apex registering and licensing authority in the country. It governs the working of all subsidiary state-level bar councils and is a statutory body constituted under the Advocates Act, 1961.
Vitthal Konde-Deshmukh, chairman of the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa, said he would inform all the district bar associations in Maharashtra and Goa, which have 1.27 lakh lawyers, about renewal of the sanads after receiving a copy of the BCI resolution.
