Weeding out of fake advocates: Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana starts verification drive

CHANDIGARH: The Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana has started a verification drive to weed out fake advocates in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh. As per this drive, it has found that 58 advocates have degrees which could not be verified from the concerned universities. The bar council has issued show cause notices to these advocates and have restrained them from appearing before any court and they will not be allowed to act or sign any documents in the capacity of an advocate. Not only this, the bar council has started the process to make records of all the advocates digital. It has been decided to put all the information regarding each and every advocate in the region on web portal and for this, each advocate is required to submit the relevant documents to the bar council. There are more than 1.8 lakh enrolled advocates from all over Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh with the bar council.
Confirming the development, Chairman Bar Council, Karanjit Singh said, “These 58 advocates are those who have received enrollment certificate between 2017 and 2020 and now on the receipt of their verification reports from concerned universities action has been initiated against them.The Bar council has issued show cause notice to 58 advocates whose degrees seems to be genuine as per verification reports received from universitities.” Their licenses have been cancelled as of now and after hearing them next course of action will be taken. Singh informed , “The Bar Council will take strict action against Advocates whose degrees are found fake which will include termination of their enrollment certificate and initiation of criminal proceedings against them.”
As per the rules all enrollments are made provisionally subject to the verification of their academic degrees. Karanjit Singh further informed that The Bar Council is in the process of verification of degrees of almost all the advocates enrolled with it.The advocates whose are practicing in the region since last five years are required to submit relevant documents to bar council and Bar council has received 50,000 such forms which are to be verified.Others are yet to fill the forms.
Also Bar council is going to upgrade the web portal and is going to put all records online to permanently resolve the issue of fake advocates and for this its in process of making enrollment , identity card, licence number all digital, Advocates would be given identity card with chip and bar code and by clicking on bar code, information of any advocate could be seen online and his credentials could be checked.
Bar Council of India Chairman had earlier in 2017 sparked controversy by giving statement that around 45 percent advocates in India are fake .To weed out fake advocates across India verification drive was going on by different state bar councils.
What is the role of Punjab and Haryana Bar Council?
The Bar Council of Punjab & Haryana, Chandigarh is an Autonomous body established and Constituted in the Year 1961 under the provisions of Advocates Act 1961.This body regulates the entry of individuals in Legal Profession. This body is the authority to provide licence to Advocates to practice law . This body also holds the right to cancel the license of advocates in case of professional misconduct .This body also protects and fights for rights and interests of all the advocates.