NO MORE ‘OPTIONAL’ FEES: SUPREME COURT CAPS ADVOCATE ENROLMENT CHARGES
The case of K. L. J. A. Kiran Babu v. The Supreme Court has firmly closed the matter of advocate enrolment fees by settling that the State Bar Councils are bound with very clear restrictions of receiving only the fee as prescribed by the Advocates Act. In throwing out the custom of imposing additional so-called optional fees, the Court has not only given some relief to money-strapped law-school graduates, but has also reflected a vital constitutional truth that the path to any profession must not be cluttered with extraneous financial requirements that are arbitrary and unlawful.