Ageism in India – Age bar in Law school

Age discrimination is the tendency to regard older persons as unworthy of attention, or unsuitable for employment. Across the world, older people are usually being treated in an unfair way by stereotyping and discriminating against them. Older people are usually the victims as they are seen as dim-witted, thus incapable of working.

In India, the Delhi Bar Council has been in the midst of excluding the older people in the law industry. It thinks that older people do not contribute much and they are usually involved in misconduct. Besides that, the council also felt that lawyers above 45 enter the profession just to pass time.

The Delhi Bar council has introduced a new policy whereby a new age-bar is set in law colleges across India. This act is done to exclude the older people and to include young people into the industry to improve the standards of legal education. The reason given was that law education must be on par with medical and engineering education. It also serves to protect the interest of the profession.

The new rule states that students who are applying for the 5 years integrated law course must not be above the age of 20 and for those who are applying for the 3 year law course must not be above the age of 30.

However, this act has not gone down well with the students as well as the teaching community, who are astounded and calling for a proper debate before the ‘‘controversial new rule’’ is enforced. Furthermore, a half dozen of post 45 "senior citizen" were dissatisfied with the policy and have appealed to the Delhi High Court. Currently, whether the new policy will be enforced depends on the Delhi High Court’s decision.

Age bar in the law profession has caused unhappiness in the older people as they are not given equal rights to choose the kind of profession they want to do. It has violated the constitutional right to equality and to practise a profession of one’s choice. Furthermore, a new age bar in the law colleges may lead to other profession carrying out the same policy in the future. This would result older people in the countries being neglected in the society.