The Madras High court has directed the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to enrol a law student as advocate irrespective of the pendency of a criminal case against him.
The student R Nagendran had participated in an anti-liquor protest in Coimbatore while studying in the government law college there in 2014. He, along with 23 others, was cited as "accused of unlawful assembly."
Citing pendency of the criminal case, the Bar Council had rejected Nagendran's enrolment application, which was challenged by him.
A division bench of Justice V Ramasubramanian and Justice K Ravichandrabaabu directed the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to enrol Nagendran within four weeks.
The bench referred to a series of orders being passed by the court to prevent anti-socials from joining the Bar and said "the prohibitive order issued by the judge has to be understood in the right perspective and cannot be applied blindfold to all types of cases where criminal complaints came to be registered against individuals."
"One of the ideals of our Constitution is to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living of the people of the country and the improvement of public health. The protest/demonstration organised by the group of students, including the petitioner, was actually towards fulfilment of this fundamental duty."
On notice, police told the court that charge sheet in the case had been filed and the trial was yet to commence.
The bench said there was no allegation in the FIR that Nagendran indulged in any violent form of protest or in any activity that was likely to cause damage to public property.
"The mere fact that he was part of a group which just stood in front of a liquor shop and shouted slogans, without anything more, cannot make him guilty of an offence, as they were only exercising their fundamental right under Article 19(1)(b) and performing their fundamental duty under Article 51-A for impressing upon the State the need to follow the Directive Principle of State Policy enshrined in Article 47," it said.
