http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20050711&fname=Kerala+%28F%29&sid=1
KERALA
Law For All, Bar Nun
The state bar council's bizarre decision to deny enrolment to a nun upsets
the clergy
JOHN MARY
Can a nun who has taken the vow to serve Christ till the end of her life
enrol as a lawyer? Not really, going by the skewed position the Kerala Bar
Council has adopted in a recent case. It has rejected an application from
Sister Teena Jose for enrolment in the bar. An inmate of the Little Flower
Convent at Cherthala in Alappuzha district, the 52-year-old nun is a member
of the Kerala-headquartered Congregation of the Mother of Carmel under the
Syro-Malabar Catholic Church.
After mulling over the consequences of taking on the bar council, the nun
filed a petition in the Kerala High Court.
It has been admitted and Justice K. Balakrishnan Nair has issued notices to
the Kerala Bar Council and the Bar Council of India. Once these are served,
the case would come up for hearing in a fortnight. In her petition, Sister
Jose terms the Kerala Bar Council decision "discriminatory, illegal,
arbitrary and a violation of the Constitution".
The Sister Jose case has assumed a new dimension with priests and nuns
rallying behind her and planning to implead themselves in the case. Talking
to Outlook, Father Paul Thelekkat, spokesman of the Catholic church, said,
"It is very unfortunate and unjust on the part of the bar council to deny
the sister registration because she is a religious person. There are many
priests and nuns practising in India. It is unfortunate that of all the
states, this has happened in Kerala. This seems to be a matter of
discrimination on the basis of religious practice which I think is against
the Constitution."
It's not as though priests have never practised in Kerala courts. Fr Antony
Puthuvelil was an advocate in the lower courts in Ernakulam for two years
after he completed his llb in 2000. He had no problem getting enrolled.
"Priesthood is not a profession, it is a way of life," he says. "When I
enrolled, I too mentioned in my application that I was a Catholic priest.
They verified it and nobody questioned me." Similarly, Sister Mary
Aemilianus of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary at Balaramapuram near
Thiruvananthapuram was enrolled in 1992 by the Kerala Bar Council. Nobody
raised any objections when she started practising at the district court in
Thiruvananthapuram.
Sister Jose's fight began when she remitted Rs 4,800 for enrolment at the
sessions court bar on January 16 under the aegis of the Bar Council of
Kerala. She was told that her name did not figure in the list of the
400-odd applicants due for enrolment. The Bar Council Enrolment Committee
did not issue a formal order rejecting her application. But, according to
Wilson Urmese, counsel for the nun, the committee told her she was already
pursuing a profession as a nun and couldn't simultaneously take up another.
Her explanation that her religious life and her being a nun was "a divine
vocation" and not gainful employment or profession cut no ice. She was told
that if nuns started entering the legal profession, the already crowded
profession would become overcrowded.
According to Urmese, the bar council's Advocates' Act or Rules do not bar
priests or nuns from becoming lawyers. The denial of enrolment was a
negation of the right to equality before law and the right to proclaim any
profession or to carry on any business. Bar council chairperson K.B.
Mohandas said the selection and enrolment committee scrutinises all
applicants. He said he did not wish to comment on an issue that was already
before the courts. He preferred to await the decision of the Bar Council of
India.
Whether Sister Jose can practice or not will be finally decided by the
courts. But before that, the Bar Council of India will review her
application and examine on what grounds she was refused enrolment. The nun
herself doesn't wish to make a comment till the case is decided. She would
rather let the law take its course.
=======
