The Supreme Court has expressed interest in a digital database for lawyers that would verify their law degrees, in a bid to weed out those with fake qualifications.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said that a digital database with a parallel link to verify law degrees could be an 'innovative' idea, after a petition was filed by the Bar Association of India.
The court issued a notice to the Centre, Bar Council of India, University Grants Commission, and all state bar councils, and asked for a mechanism to be submitted to link verified law degrees with a Unique National Advocate Identifier.
The Bar Association of India has proposed a National Digital Registry for the Legal Profession of India, which would contain real-time enrolment status, verified qualifications, disciplinary record, and a QR-verifiable public profile accessible to any litigant on a mobile phone in seconds.
The court was told that approximately 35-40% of lawyers practising before courts may be fake, and that even the Supreme Court had raised concerns about the genuineness of law degrees held by enrolled advocates.
The bench said that a new committee may need to be constituted to address the issue, and that a social media and digital conduct code should be framed within six months to regulate the behaviour of lawyers on social media.
