HC okays candidature of 2 lawyers for civil judge posts

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat high court on Monday granted relief to two advocates whose candidature for the post of civil judges were not accepted by the court in the absence of provisional practice certificates.
The Bar Council of Gujarat (BCG) did not issue these certificates because the law colleges where they studied were not recognised by the Bar Council of India (BCI).
After the two job aspirants, who wanted to participate in the recruitment for the posts of civil judges, approached the HC, Justice Nirzar Desai issued a notice seeking replies from the HC administration and the BCG on Feb 27.
The court stated, "In the meantime, R-2 the Bar Council of Gujarat is directed to issue provisional certificates of practice to the petitioners and R-1 (HC) is directed to allow the petitioners only to the limited extent of participating in the recruitment process for the post of civil judges. However, no appointment shall be given to the petitioners even if they succeed till the issue about the recognition of the colleges where they studied is decided by the court."
These LLB graduates are from grant-in-aid law colleges in Surat and Bhuj, which were derecognised by the BCI for either not meeting the criteria or not paying the fine imposed on them.
These students were provisionally enrolled by the Bar Council of Gujarat the All India Bar Council Exam last year on a conditional order of the HC, which said that their licence to practise law would be held valid subject to the outcome of petitions filed by the colleges challenging their derecognition by the BCI.
For the petitioners, advocate Sudhanshu Jha submitted that the high court, in its interim order in Oct last year, directed the BCG to grant provisional certificates of practice to these students.
"Petitioners should not be made to suffer because of the inaction of respondent bar council to issue certificates of provisional practice, as it will cost them an important year and will also affect their seniority," the petition reads.