Chennai, Jul 26 (PTI): Thirty percent of lawyers in the country are fake, possessing 'fraudulent' law degrees or non-practising persons, and were degrading the profession, Bar Council of India Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra has said.

He also said 20 percent of persons sporting lawyers robes did not have proper law degrees.

"Thirty percent of all lawyers are fake, who either hold fraudulent degrees or are non-practising persons and 20 percent of those who sport lawyers robes do not have proper degrees," he said addressing Lawyers Meet 2015 here last evening.

He pointed out how a former Delhi Law Minister himself had a fake law degree.

"Fake lawyers and non-practising law graduates are degrading the standards of the profession", he said adding BCI's Certificate and Place of Practice (Verification) Rules 2015 was one of the steps taken by it to filter fake, non-practising and bad elements from the court campuses and bar associations.

The initiative brought out in January this year was aimed at checking if someone on the rolls of Bar Council was in real practice.

BCI, statutorily empowered to take action, was in the process of weeding out bad elements from the rolls (of advocates with BCI), he said.

"Strikes on petty issues have become a regular phenomenon due to such persons, we are serious about this and will take stiff action," he said.

Mishra's views comes months after the Tamil Nadu Bar Council unearthed a fake law degree racket.