Over 22,000 Kerala lawyers, who are on the rolls of the Bar Council of Kerala (BCK), have skipped the law degree verification process. Going by the latest figures, there are around 81,000 lawyers on the rolls of the council. Only those lawyers who have got their law degrees verified and obtained the Certificates of Practice (CoP) will be allowed to file petitions for their clients in future.

The mammoth exercise for verifying the degree certificates and issuance of CoP gathered momentum a few years ago when complaints of fake lawyers practising in various courts came up. Also, the demand for cleaning up the voters’ list ahead of Bar Council elections necessitated speeding up of verification process. However, the process could not be completed on time due to a host of factors, including the delay in getting the degree certificates from various universities verified, legal sources indicated.

Of the 81,000 lawyers, CoP has been issued to 27,000 lawyers. The certificates of another 20,000 lawyers, who cleared the All India Bar Examination since 2010, have been forwarded for verification and the applications of another 5,000 lawyers who enrolled before 2010 are pending with various universities, said K.N. Anilkumar, former chairperson and former convener of the CoP monitoring committee.

One fake law degree

Only one case of fake law degree has been detected in Kerala so far. As the courts are fast moving into online filing of cases, an AI-assisted system would be introduced which would verify instantly the details of the lawyers filing the case, including their CoP.

Of the 22,000 lawyers whose certificates could not be screened, a few would be dead, while some would have left active practice or even quit the profession. The respective bar associations would be in a better position to ascertain the status of these lawyers, he said.

Qualification for enrolment

The Bar Council of Kerala

The future course of action will have to be decided by the upcoming council. Though the members of the 13th bar council have been elected, the committee is yet to assume office. The Kerala Chief Justice will shortly nominate a senior woman lawyer and a former woman High Court judge to the committee as instructed by the Supreme Court, sources said.

Published - August 17, 2026 12:09 am IST