Petition demanding revision of Legal Profession Act gathers 370 signatures

Law students have launched a petition demanding revision to the Legal Profession Act.

The law, enacted in 2019, establishes that law graduates need to undergo one-year training and pass a bar exam before they can receive their license to practice law. It has left the many law students who graduated after the law was enacted unable to take their lawyer’s oath.

The students, in their petition, highlighted on a number of issues which are of chief concern to them.

It notes the limited number of places which has been approved for the one-year training, posing the question as to whether all law graduates will have access to the necessary training.

It says that the training requirement is a burden to graduates who are employed, and that the places which have been approved to provide the training may possibly charge graduates a fee.

Ali Thihunan Fazeen, a law student who spoke to Sun, said that the current procedure exposed more graduates, to even more challenges with the passing of time.

Thihunan said that a record number of law students had graduated from the Maldives National University (MNU) earlier this year, but that only enough students to fill a single classroom had enrolled for law courses in the February intake.

The petition highlights on the limited number of supervisors qualified to conduct training, and says that the retrospective nature of the law, given that students who enrolled in law courses or had graduated before it was enacted were required to abide by it, was against the spirit of the Constitution.

It asks for the law to be revised to extend the transitional period.

The students hope to present the petition to the Parliament through a parliamentarian from ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), but say they will present it through an independent parliamentarian if they fail to lobby a MDP parliamentarian.

According to Thihunan, the students have already gathered 370 signatures for the petition in a matter of a few days.

The head of Bar Council, Maumoon Hameed himself has said that the law presented challenges which couldn’t be overcome if it isn’t revised.