Bar Council of India withdraws maximum age limit for admission to law courses

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has withdrawn the maximum age limit it had set for admission to law courses, bringing relief to students who wish to study law. The BCI informed the Supreme Court of this on November 6. The council said a resolution to this effect had been passed on November 5.

The matter came up during the hearing of a petition titled "Rishabh Duggal and Others vs Bar Council of India and Others". Before a bench of Chief Justice of India Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohan, the BCI's lawyers said the council had withdrawn all age-related restrictions. The Supreme Court then took the BCI's statement on record and disposed of the petition.

Under the BCI's Legal Education Rules, 2008, a maximum age was fixed for admission to different law courses. For the five-year integrated LLB course, the limit was 20 years for general category candidates. Candidates in some reserved categories got a relaxation of five years. For the three-year LLB course, the maximum age was 30 years, with an additional relaxation of five years for reserved categories. These restrictions had closed the route to legal education for candidates above the prescribed age.

The age condition for admission to law courses has long been a subject of legal dispute. In 2013 too, the BCI had withdrawn Clause 28 of Schedule III of its 2008 rules, which fixed the maximum age. At that time, a one-member committee had held that the age restrictions were not in keeping with the principles of Article 14 of the Constitution (right to equality).

Following the legal dispute that came after that, the BCI issued a circular in September 2016 and reinstated the age limit. The validity of the restrictions was then challenged in various courts.

The petition filed in the Supreme Court had questioned whether the BCI, under its powers to regulate legal education and set eligibility, has the right to fix a maximum age for admission. At a hearing in September, the Supreme Court had asked the BCI to consider withdrawing the age limit for the five-year integrated LLB course. After the BCI's November 5 resolution, the court has now been told that the age restrictions have been withdrawn. This will bring major relief to thousands of candidates who until now could not take admission to law courses because of the age condition.