Supreme Court stays Bar Council notification on age limit for LLB course

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed a notification issued by the Bar Council of India (BCI) to fix the upper age limit to 22 years for the five-year law course and 45 years for the three-year course to get admission in a law college.

A bench comprising Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao said it would examine the validity of the BCI decision to raise the age-limit from 20 to 22 years and putting a cap of 45 years for the three-year law course.

"Stay on notification of September 17, 2016 pending decision and all consequential acts taken thereof," the bench said while posting the matter for next hearing in the third week of July.

The direction came on a plea filed by law aspirant Rishabh Duggal and others challenging the notification which fixed upper age limit for students in LLB entrance exams.

Senior advocate Sanjay Hegde, appearing for the petitioners, said the new stipulation violates the fundamental rights of aspiring law students.

During the hearing, the BCI lawyer requested the court that the admission of the petitioners should be subject to the outcome of the case.

To this, the bench said, "to the contrary, we are inclined to say that it won't be subject to the outcome of this case".

The age limit for the entrance exam was fixed after Bar Council of India notification, passed in September 2016, claimed that Clause 28 of Schedule III, Rule 11 of the Rules of Legal Education, 2008 stood "revived". That rule imposes an age-limit for entry into law courses.