Delhi HC stays Shahdara Bar Association circular imposing ‘dress code’ for law interns

 The circular said that law interns were prohibited from wearing black coats and black trousers on the account that it became difficult to ‘differentiate and distinguish between advocates and interns’ The high court further asked the Bar Council of Delhi (BCD) to convene a meeting of all bar associations in the national capital, other stakeholders and the Bar Council of India (BCI), to evolve a consensus on the uniform for law interns. (File) The Delhi High Court on Thursday stayed a circular issued by the Shahdara Bar Association prescribing a “uniform” for law interns – blue coat, white shirt and black trousers – to distinguish them from advocates. A single judge bench of Justice Prathiba Singh stayed the operation of the circular in a plea moved by Hardik Kapoor, a second-year law student at MERI-Professional and Law Institute, who challenged the circular as “arbitrary” and imposing an “illegal restriction on interns”. The plea seeks quashing of the said circular. The high court further asked the Bar Council of Delhi (BCD) to convene a meeting of all bar associations in the national capital, other stakeholders and the Bar Council of India (BCI), to evolve a consensus on the uniform for law interns. “This court is of the opinion that considering the large number of interns in district courts and the high court, a uniform policy ought arrive at by all the stakeholders concerned so that the interns can wear a uniform which fairly distinguishable from the lawyers. A consistent uniform should be prescribed for the interns in as much as that if separate bar associations start prescribing uniforms, the interns would be clearly inconvenient,” the high court said. The plea filed through advocates Ujwal Ghai, Shivek Rai Kapoor, Sanchit Saini and Arpit Sharma claims that the circular is contrary to Rule 27 of Rules of Legal Education, 2008 issued by Bar Council of India which prescribes the “formal dress code for law interns during internships”. According to this rule, interns are supposed to be dressed in “white/black trouser, white shirt, black tie, black coat, black shoe and black socks”. The plea further claims that the Shahdara Bar Association has no jurisdiction to pass such a circular when the rules regarding the uniform of interns have already been framed by the Bar Council of India.

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