Bar Council decision on licences

Chandigarh, Mar 1 (UNI) The Bar Council of India has approved the recent decision of the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana denying licence to practice to those law graduates who had crossed the age of forty five years.

The council which held its meeting on February 11 and 12 at New Delhi also directed bar councils of various states to emulate the decision of the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana and initiate necessary.

However, there are exceptions to this new rule. The retired judges, judicial officers and those who held licence to practice at one time but opted out to take up some other career, and chose to return to the profession subsequently have been excluded from the purview of the 45-years upper age limit rule.

The indications were the legality of the new rule might be challenged as the Supreme Court had struck down as discriminatory, unreasonable and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution in 1993 when a similar decision had been taken by a state bar council, siome members of the High Court bar council here observed.

UNI XC PS AK PM2229