Advocate challenges BCI's new age bar for law aspirants

Yasmin Tavaria, a part-time professor at Government Law College and GLC graduate, on Monday filed a petition in the Bombay High Court challenging the reintroduction of Clause 28 of the Legal Education Rules, 2008.

As per the rule, the maximum age limit for admission to the five-year and three-year law course is twenty and thirty years respectively. The new rule came into force about ten days ago, with the Bar Council of India (BCI) writing to law schools on September 17, intimating them about it.

In 2009, Tavaria moved the high court with regard to the same issue. Her petition was among several petitions filed in different high courts. The Punjab and Haryana high courts termed the section as "illegal" and struck it down. It was then challenged in the Supreme Court, but the BCI had withdrawn the plea, saying it had withdrawn the notification. Following this, Tavaria's PIL' which was in the high court, was disposed off stating that the order of the Punjab and Haryana high courts had attained finality.

Tavaria, who plans to appear in person to argue her case, will likely be given a hearing this Friday in the high court. The plea calls for quashing clause 28 and declaring it "unconstitutional" and "discriminatory".