Aaditya Gore

Advocate

BY EMAIL
19th June 2021
To,
Hon’ble Chairman,
Bar Council of India,
21 Rouse Avenue,
Institutional Area, Near National Bal Bhawan,
Off Minto Road, New Delhi – 110 002.

Ref: Application for instituting post-enrolment courses under the aegis

of the Bar Council with academic degree equivalence in UGC system

Respected Sir,

The following points are most humbly sought to be brought to the notice
of the Hon’ble Chairman and Hon’ble Members of the Bar Council of
India:

NEED FOR SPECIALISED PRACTICAL COURSES FOR PRACTISING

ADVOCATES UNDER THE AEGIS OF THE BAR COUNCIL OF INDIA

a) The Bar Council of India is the central statutory body formed under the
Advocates Act, 1961 which regulates the profession of Advocates.
One of the functions of the Bar Council of India u/s 7(h) of the
Advocates Act, 1961 is 'To promote legal education and to lay down
standards of such education in consultation with the Universities in
India imparting such education and the State Bar Councils.'
Accordingly, many Continuing Legal Education Programmes are
successfully and fruitfully conducted by the Bar Council of India and
by State Bar Councils. However, fellowships with equivalence to

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higher university degrees is something that may be considered in

order to make the obtaining of such additional credits academically
significant to members of the legal fraternity.
b) The Institutes governing the professions of Chartered Accountants
(Institute of Chartered Accountants of India), Costs and Work
Accountants (Institute of Cost Accountants of India) and Company
Secretaries (Institute of Company Secretaries of India) offer post-
qualification certificate courses which deal with offering specialised
skill-based courses after a professional has qualified himself/herself
to be a member of the respective profession. Some of these institutes
have also established equivalence of their basic qualifications with
Masters degrees offered by Universities.
c) Most of the Master of Law (LL.M) courses offered across Universities
in India are academic in nature and equip candidates with very good
research skills, but they do not deal with the specialised expertise
related to the practice of law. In contrast, the specialised practice-
related courses for example, the ones offered by the Institute of
Chartered Accountants of India, equip the respective professionals
taking such courses, with specialised skills imparted by senior
professionals who are well possessed of the practical knowledge of
the subject matter. This leads to greater professional excellence.
d) With the widening horizons of the practice of law, it is essential to bring
specialised knowledge honed by individual legal practitioners into a
formal common mainstream by standardising such knowledge and
giving it equivalent academic credit and share it in a systematic
manner with younger legal professionals who can benefit much from
such post-qualification courses.

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NEED FOR A FELLOWSHIP-BASED QUALIFICATIONS AND

GRADATION SYSTEM FOR PRACTICAL ACADEMICS OUTSIDE THE
UNIVERSITY SYSTEM

a) The All India Bar Examination that was made compulsory for all law
graduates from the 2010 batch onwards is a welcome step in ensuring
a basic minimum competency-based qualification for practising
Advocates. It is submitted that all those passing the All India Bar
Examination be endowed with a diploma which can be the basic
qualifying criterion for regulating the practical academics of the Bar.
b) It is seen that the branch of purely academic lawyers within the
University setup is not related to the practical aspect of law practice.
However, this does not mean that the practical aspect of law practice
does not need its own excellence-enhancement institution.
c) Post-qualification certificates and diplomas can be developed and
may act as additions to the basic qualification of an All India Bar
Examination Diploma. This will ensure a purely professional
competency-based qualifications system outside the University setup
for the purpose of expanding the specialised knowledge of practical
Advocacy which is different from the purely academic law that a law
graduate presently has access to after passing the Bachelor of Laws
(LL.B) examination.
d) The Bar Council of India with its setup consisting of professional
Advocates is best suited to form such an Institute of the Bar Council
which can look into the knowledge-imparting functions which directly
concern practical advocacy, something which purely academic LL.M
courses available at Universities cannot achieve.
e) For practical professional knowledge to be shared by experienced
professionals with younger professionals, it is essential that such an
Institute be formed under the direct aegis and functionality of the Bar

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Council of India which may assign the knowledge-imparting functions

of such an institute to State-wise chapters under the control of the
State Bar Councils.
f) The competency-based practical qualifications gradation mechanism
can be given the power to evaluate the value-addition by a
professional to the practical and professional aspects of law, for
example if an Advocate contributes to the evolution of the professional
discipline by writing specialised research papers on such matters, the
same may be used for evaluation by the Institute of the Bar Council of
India for awarding Post-Graduate Advanced Diplomas (which may
be comparable with a Master's Degree) and Post-Graduate
Advanced Fellowships (which may be comparable with a
Doctorate) and other such fellowship qualifications which are purely
professional in nature but which are comparable to the superior
qualifications in the University setup. Like the other professional
Institutes, the BCI could coordinate with the University Grants
Commission (UGC) to grant degree equivalence to such
qualifications.
g) Advocates who qualify themselves in such terms as suggested
hereinabove may be better suited to impart knowledge of the technical
aspects of lawyering to law students interested in taking up Law as a
profession. The role of the proposed Institute of the Bar Council of
India may thus be expanded to train candidates of practical advocacy
in conjunction with Law Colleges and Universities imparting law
courses.
h) It is therefore most humbly submitted that the Advocates Act, 1961 be
suitably amended to enable the Bar Council of India to form an
Institute of the Bar Council of India for the purpose of awarding an
entry-level Post-Graduate Professional Law Diploma (PGPLD) to

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all those Advocates passing the All India Bar Examination and for
formulating and conducting post-qualification specialised courses for
enhancing professional expertise among practising Advocates, to
evaluate specialised research material and award Diploma and
Fellowship qualifications which will act as a scale standard of such
qualification outside the University system which is not well-suited for
providing for the specialised professional expertise enhancement that
the profession of law requires.

It is most humbly prayed that the above humble suggestions be

considered by the Hon’ble Bar Council of India and if found suitable, may
be taken up with the Hon’ble Union Ministry for Law and Justice for
appropriate legislative measures in this respect.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Aaditya Gore, Advocate

CC over email to:

1. Hon’ble Union Law Minister, 4th Floor, A-Wing, Shastri Bhawan New
Delhi-110 001.
2. Hon’ble Chairman and Members, Bar Council of Maharashtra and
Goa, 2nd Floor, Annexe Building, Bombay High Court, Mumbai – 400
032.

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