The Madras high court today admitted 23-year-old lawyer Akshay Mani’s writ challenging the new Bar Council of India (BCI) restriction on the right to practice before the apex and higher courts.

Mani’s counsel Naveen Kumar Murthi told Legally India that Mani’s challenge to the new BCI rule barring advocates with less than five years of lower court experience from practicing before the SC, “merited an examination” in the view of Madras high court chief justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and justice Pushpa Satyanarayana, who were hearing the matter.

Murthi said that the judges served the BCI with a notice to respond by January, but did not grant an interim stay on the challenged rule, noting that the matter itself may be disposed of in January.

The new Rule 7 of the BCI Rules 2014, introduced this month but subject to state bar council approvals, allows only advocates with at least two years of experience practicing in a trial court to practice in high courts, followed by in turn another three years of experience practicing in a high court before practising before the Supreme Court.

The rule has not yet come into force and will become effective on a date yet to be decided by the BCI.

Mani challenged it as violating Section 30 of the Advocates Act which grants an unequivocal right on advocates to practice before any court in India.

Bar Council of India vice chairman SL Gowda told Legally India that the rule had received “a lot of positive feedback from many judges” across various courts.