New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Bar Council of India (BCI), Tamil Nadu Bar Council and others on a petition from a Madurai-based advocate challenging a Madras high court order appointing an expert panel to suggest legal reforms.
A Bench of Justices V. Gopala Gowda and U.U. Lalit issued notice on a special leave petition by S.M. Anantha Murugan, seeking to quash the impugned order and an interim stay of its operation.
In is order, the Madurai Bench had directed the Centre to consider positively, within six months, to entrust the functions of the Bar Council of India to an expert body, headed by a retired Supreme Court judge permanently or till the Advocates Act and the Bar Council Rules are revisited.
The HC directed the nomination of academicians, legal luminaries, prominent social workers, retired I.A.S. officers, police officers and doctors as members of the committee on the ground that the electoral system followed by Bar Council failed to elect appropriate persons as members of the council resulting in making the body incapable of handling issues properly.
The petitioner said he was aggrieved over entrusting the functions of BCI. The function of enrollment and legal education is to be entrusted with the legal education committee of BCI under the chairmanship of a retired Supreme Court judge and others as per the Legal Education Rule 2008.
