Agartala, Mar 8 (IANS): The Bar Council of Tripura on Wednesday said it has barred 260 lawyers, who have not practiced in any court for the last five years, from further practice.

"On the direction of the Bar Council of India (BCI), the state bar council initiated the process last year to identify non-practicing lawyers. Accordingly, 260 advocates who did not practice in courts in the last five years were identified," Bar Council of Tripura chairman Pijush Kanti Biswas told IANS.

He said that the bar council on Monday displayed the names of these lawyers in all courts, including the High Court, in the state and barred them from practice.

"If the debarred lawyers wish to restart the practice in court, their case would be examined as per the Certificate and Place of Practice (Verification) Rules, 2015 and after that, the Bar Council would take a final decision," said Biswas, a senior lawyer of Tripura.

The bar association membership of these 260 lawyers would also be invalidated.

Biswas said that following the Supreme Court directions in 2010, BCI had asked all the state bar councils to identify and debarred the non-practicing and non-serious lawyers.

"There were many people who had taken law degree many years ago, and enrolled themselves in the profession as an advocate. But for certain reasons, while some of them switched over to other professions, some became full-time politicians and some people remained out of practice for numerous reasons."

The important personalities whose names were revoked as advocates for not practicing in courts in the last five years include, Tripura assembly Speaker Ramendra Chandra Debnath, Trinamool Congress leader and legislator Sudip Roy Barman, his father and former Chief Minister Samir Ranjan Barman, and Bharatiya Janata Party state Vice President Subal Bhowmik.

The BCI, on the direction of the apex court, initiated the process to weed out fake and non-practicing lawyers by implementing the Certificate and Place of Practice (Verification) Rules and issued guidelines to state Bar Councils in this regard.

Biswas also said that those lawyers took a law degree from any institution while working in government jobs or doing other service and processions, would also be disallowed from practicing in the courts but noted that advocates of these category have not yet been identified.

He said that several lakh of such non-practising lawyers from across the country also met the same fate.