In a first, the Bar Council of Kerala organised an online enrolment for new advocates. A total of 785 candidates were enrolled as lawyers through an online function organised by the Bar Council on Saturday.
The enrolling was done through video-conferencing as there are restrictions on public gatherings, owing to the measures in place to contain the COVID-19 infection.
Council chairman KP Jayachandran administered the oath to candidates. The videoconferencing lasted for one and a half hours.
According to LiveLaw, this is the first time that any court has conducted online enrolment for the Bar Council. The video conferencing was done via the portal Cisco Webex.
In May, the High Court had sought the response of the Bar Council on a writ petition seeking that the enrolment ceremony to be held via video-conferencing amid the lockdown. The candidates had gone through several trials prior to the virtual enrolment.
TNIE quotes one of the enrolled advocates Maria Rincy CJ as saying that the proceedings went smoothly as there were several trials and that the attempts for the same by some other states didn’t succeed.
The enrolled advocates, however, expect a proper ceremony to distribute certificates. The advocate has also said that it was the certificate distribution ceremony that they were waiting for while being a law student for five years.
The eligible candidates who wanted to opt for the online enrolment had to give their consent through the website of the Bar Council. Those who had no access to smartphones or computers were asked to use the facility through Akshaya centres.
As per the norms for the online enrolling, the proposed advocates needed to be well-equipped with hardware requirements for the function and any candidate who would be absent on that day will not be treated as enrolled.
Enrolment certificates will be issued only after personal verification which will be done in three months.