New Delhi: All advocates and lawyers should undergo compulsory training and they should not be allowed to practise unless they have a certificate from a recognised law university, the Supreme Court said on Friday.
A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal made the significant observation while hearing the bail petition of Souvik Bhattacharya, son of Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA Manik Bhattacharya, who has been arrested in connection with the teachers’ recruitment scam in West Bengal.
Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, appearing on behalf of Souvik, submitted that a bail application was filed by a lawyer in the trial court despite the absence of a summoning order.
“Why don’t you have a law academy for lawyers? We have for judges. No action is being taken against erring lawyers by the Bar Council. They should be educated properly. Do something. There must be compulsory training for every lawyer, including senior advocates.
“If judges can go to the National Judicial Academy, why not lawyers? Unless they have a certificate from a recognised law university, they should not be allowed to practise. It is there in foreign countries. It is not that nobody knows it, the problem is that nobody wants to implement it,” the bench observed.
