Kerala High Court Declines To Advance Bar Council Enrolment Dates, Allows Graduates To Seek Protection Of Seniority

The Kerala High Court on Tuesday (December 16) disposed of a batch of pleas preferred by law graduates seeking to prepone enrolment to the Bar Council of Kerala (BCK), which is presently scheduled to be held on January 10-11, 2026.Justice V.G. Arun observed that since there is no statutory requirement that the Bar Council must conduct enrolment within stipulated periods, the prayer to prepone the enrolment cannot be allowed. The petitioners told the Court that the enrolment was originally scheduled to be held on December 21 of this year but was postponed to the afore dates. They contended that the postponement will result in them losing their seniority and sought for a direction to conduct the enrolment in 2025 itself.In one of the pleas, it is stated that the last date fixed to apply for enrolment this time was November 21 but the BCK arbitrarily issued a notification on November 19 extending the application deadline and postponing the enrolment dates."It is contended that this arbitrary postponement causes grave and irreparable injury to the Petitioners and similarly situated graduates. The K Number (enrollment registration number) assigned to an advocate contains the year of enrollment. By postponing the enrollment from December 2025 to January 2026, the 1st Respondent has effectively changed the Petitioners enrollment year from 2025 to 2026, despite the fact that they completed their degree on 27th October 2025 and finished all application formalities November 2025 well within the deadline stipulated in the original notification dated 29th October 2025," states the plea.The plea further stated that the postponement will result in loss of advocate seniority, employment disadvantages as many legal positions in government and public sector undertakings take into consideration the enrolment year, loss of seniority/eligibility for judicial officers examinations, etc.The Bar Council, on the other hand, stated that the decision to postpone the date of enrolment was a conscious one, taking into consideration the delay in certificate verification of the University and police verification. The fact that the result of the Calicut University has not yet been published was also a factor taken into consideration.Hearing the same, the Court observed:"No doubt that petitioners and the similarly placed students will be put to some prejudiced by reason of the postponement of enrolment as they will lose seniority where it comes to appointments in judicial and other services. At the same time, in so far as there is no statutory compulsion on the bar council to conduct enrolment within stipulated periods, this Court cannot issue a writ of mandamus directing that the enrolment should be on the date originally fixed. All the more so, since the Bar Council has taken a conscious decision to postpone the enrolment after taking into consideration various factors."At this time, the petitioners' counsel asked that at least in the enrolment numbers, the year may be shown as 2025 even though it is conducted in January 2026. However, this was not accepted by the Bar Council, which said that the enrolment numbers are given only on the date of enrolment.Again, the counsels suggested that there may be a direction to the BCK to grant seniority to the petitioners and others, who have submitted applications within the time originally fixed to apply for enrolment, i.e., . Finding merit in the suggestion, the Court gave a direction to the Bar Council:"I find some substance in the said suggestion, and therefore, the petitioners are permitted to make a request in that regard and the Bar Council of Kerala is directed to take a reasoned decision thereof. Writ petitions disposed of accordingly."Thus, it disposed of the pleas.Case No: WP(C) 44236/2025 and connected casesCase Title: Ashika Beegam S. and Ors v. Bar Council of Kerala and Ors. and connected casesCitation: 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 831Counsel for the petitioners: Shamem M.S., Sujith Ajayan, Jisna Sajeev, Febiya Prabhakaran, Asha George, Mehnaz P. Mohammed, Levin T. Thomas, K. Reeha Khader, Krishnapriya Sreekumar

Kerala High Court Declines To Advance Bar Council Enrolment Dates, Allows Graduates To Seek Protection Of Seniority

K. Salma Jennath

Tags