Bar Council Of India Admission 2024-25, Steps to Apply, Course-Wise Median Packages

BCI - Bar Council of India

The Bar Council of India is a statutory body created by Parliament to regulate and represent the Indian Bar. We perform the regulatory function by prescribing standards of professional conduct and etiquette and by exercising disciplinary jurisdiction over the Bar. We also set standards for legal education and grant recognition to Universities whose degree in law will serve as a qualification for enrolment as an advocate.

In addition, we perform certain representative functions by protecting the rights, privileges and interests of advocates and through the creation of funds for providing financial assistance to organize welfare schemes for them.

The Bar Council of India was established by the Parliament under the Advocates Act, 1961. The following statutory functions under Section 7 cover the Bar Council’s regulatory and representative mandate for the legal profession and legal education in India:

To lay down standards of professional conduct and etiquette for advocates.

• To lay down procedures to be followed by its disciplinary committee and the disciplinary committees of each State Bar Council.
• To safeguard the rights, privileges and interests of advocates.
• To promote and support law reform.
• To deal with and dispose of any matter which may be referred to it by a State Bar Council.
• To promote legal education and to lay down standards of legal education. This is done in consultation with the Universities in India imparting legal education and the State Bar Councils.
• To recognise Universities whose degree in law shall be a qualification for enrolment as an advocate. The Bar Council of India visits and inspects Universities or directs the State Bar Councils to visit and inspect Universities for this purpose.
• To conduct seminars and talks on legal topics by eminent jurists and publish journals and papers of legal interest.
• To organise legal aid to the poor.
• To recognise on a reciprocal basis; the foreign qualifications in law obtained outside India for the purpose of admission as an advocate in India.
• To manage and invest the funds of the Bar Council.
• To provide for the election of its members who shall run the Bar Councils.

Proposed activity

• Publications of law journals
• Indian Bar Review to be published once in three months
• A lawyers edition of the latest case laws
• Internship programme to be offered to the needy and deserving students
• Scholarship schemes to be offered to the needy and deserving students
• To open a publication division and publish standard law books
• To publish casebooks
• To publish translations of various law books in Hindi and other regional languages
• To establish, maintain and run a printing press
• To set in motion an insurance scheme for lawyers
• To participate in international conferences and to identify brilliant lawyers to represent the Bar Council of India at international conferences
• To appoint editing staff for the publication division
• To accept endowments, grants and donation
• To publicise all India moot court competition
• To have a data bank of lawyers in the country

Rules Applicable to Disciplinary Proceedings

Proceedings to be in camera

All the proceedings before the Disciplinary Committee shall be held in camera.

Inspection of Records and Copies

Inspection of any of the records in any proceeding before the Disciplinary Committee may be permitted to the parties. They have to present an application duly signed by the applicant or his advocate. They also have to pay a prescribed fee. The permission is given on any working day except during the summer or other vacations of the Supreme Court.

An application for inspection shall be made to the Registrar of the Disciplinary Committee. The Registrar of the Disciplinary Committee may permit the inspection in his presence or in the presence of any member of the staff authorized by him.

The person inspecting shall not be entitled to make copies of the record of which the inspection is granted. He shall, however, be permitted to make short notes with a pencil.

Copies of Records and Judgments

Certified copies of the records of a case pending before the Disciplinary Committee may be granted to the parties or to their counsel on an application made in that behalf and on payment of the prescribed fee.

A copy of a final judgment in a decided case may be given to any person applying for the same on payment of the prescribed fee. However, the name of the advocate against whom the proceedings were taken shall be omitted.

Order Awarding Costs

All orders where costs are awarded in disciplinary proceedings shall specify the amount of costs awarded. It shall also state the party against whom the order is made and the time within which the amount is payable.

As soon as possible after such an order is made by the Disciplinary Committee, in respect of every order where costs are awarded to any of the parties, a decretal order shall be drawn up. This is signed by the Secretary of the State Bar Council or the Bar Council of India as the case may be, as Registrar of the Disciplinary Committee and bearing the seal of the State Bar Council or the Bar Council of India as the case may be.

This decretal order shall be furnished to any party to the proceeding on application made and on payment of the charges prescribed under the rules.

Copies of Final Orders

The Secretary of the State Bar Council or the Bar Council of India, as the case may be, shall send to each of the parties in the proceedings, a certified copy of the final order.

It shall be signed by him as Registrar of the Disciplinary Committee and bearing the seal of the State Bar Council/Bar Council of India as the case may be. No charges shall be payable on the copies so sent. Charges as prescribed under the rules shall however be payable for all additional copies of the said order applied for.