The Delhi High Court on Thursday said that Bar Council of Delhi (BCD)’s notification making Aadhaar and Voter Identity Card bearing a Delhi-NCR address mandatory for enrolment with it, needs to be annulled with immediate effect.
A bench ofJustice Subramonium Prasad questioned counsel on how people not hailing from Delhi can be barred from seeking enrolment.
“How can you restrict persons of Delhi alone to register with the BCD? This notification needs to be struck down straightaway. You cannot restrict BCD membership to Delhi only,” the bench remarked.
Delhi is a good place to pursue law practice, which is why people come here, the judge said.
“Suppose I am saying in Ramanathapuram, I stay in Silchar or Kachchh or Mehsana. What will I do? I have to earn my bread, come here and practise.”
Justice Prasad was dealing with a a Public Interest Litigation filed by lawyer Shannu Baghel to set aside BCD’s notification. Baghel, a practising advocate in the high court and district courts here, argued that notification was discriminatory as it bars people from outside Delhi-NCR from enrolling in Delhi and practicing here.
The court then listed Baghel’s plea for further hearing in August when similar pleas are scheduled.
An advocate and Delhi University alumna had also filed a plea before the high court challenging the BCD’s notification. Calling the BCD’s decision arbitrary and discriminatory, the petition filed by advocate Rajani Kumari, who is a resident of Bihar, challenges BCD’s notice issued on April 13 stating that lawyers proposing to get enrolled with the BCD will have to produce their Aadhaar and Voter ID cards showing Delhi or the NCR as their place of residence.
The BCD has stated in its notice that it is mandatory for the fresh law graduates seeking to enrol in the national capital to attach their Aadhaar and Voter ID card copies bearing an address in Delhi/NCR and the lack of this will lead to no enrolment.
According to Kumari, the council’s decision would act like a barrier for law graduates coming from different parts of the country and looking to practise law in the capital for better prospects.
“The requirement of Aadhaar Card and Voter ID Card with the address of Delhi or NCR discriminates against those law graduates who do not have an address in Delhi or NCR. This creates an arbitrary classification between law graduates based on their residential address, which is a violation of Article 14,” the plea contended.
It stated that the blanket restriction on enrolment with BCD lacks intelligible differentia as to how a law graduate belonging to Agra having and graduated from National Law School, Bangalore is unequally placed with one domiciled in Meerut. “The impugned notification is completely silent about the objective it seeks to achieve from the classification stipulated therein,” the plea stated.
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