A PERSON VOLUNTARILY SUSPENDING HIS/HER LEGAL PRACTICE FOR A GOVERNMENT JOB CEASES TO BE A MEMBER OF THE BAR- KERALA HC

Recently, the Kerala High Court held that a person who enrolled as an advocate and later suspended his legal practice to serve as a government employee will cease to be a “member of the Bar”.

A Division Bench of Justices Alexander Thomas and Viju Abraham was hearing a petitioner who was enrolled as an Advocate in 2017 but suspended her legal practice as per the Advocates Act and the Bar Council of India Rules, after securing a government job in 2012.

In 2017 the Kerala Public Service Commission issued a notification seeking applications for the post of Assistant Public Prosecutor-Grade II. The post required the applicants to be a member of the Bar with at least three years of active practice in criminal courts.

The petitioner approached the Division Bench of the Kerala Administrative Tribunal, Thiruvananthapuram, which held that the petitioner cannot be treated as a bar member as she is a full-time serving government employee, which is contrary to the appointment criteria. The Tribunal further held that the combined effect of Rules 49 and 5(1) of the Bar Council Rules, upon voluntarily suspending the practice, the person will have to surrender the original certificate of enrolment to the State Bar Council. 

Hence, the petitioner approached the HC challenging the decision of the Tribunal.

The HC held that "to describe a person a member of the Bar, he/she should be a member of the legal profession, who earns a livelihood through legal practice." "A person like the applicant, who does not have the legal right to practise in terms of Secs.30 and 33 of the Act, given the above said aspects and the consequences flowing from the Act, it cannot be said that such a person should be a member of the Bar."