INDIAN SOLICITOR’S APPLICATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18293, 9 July 1921, Page 10

INDIAN SOLICITOR’S APPLICATION.

A QUESTION OF LOYALTY. (Pkb United rnr.su Association.) WELLINGTON. July 8. The Full Court was engaged this morning in hearing an application for admission a* a barrister and solicitor by Mr Manilal, a Hindu. Mr P. J. O'Regan appeared in support of the application, and Mr H. P. Richmond for the Auckland District Law Society, which opposed it. Mr C'Rcgan, in opening for the applicant, said the case was the first of its kind which had come before the court in New Zealand. Mr Manilal was, ho said, born in the feudatory State of Baroda. He was a barrister of the Middle Temple, and entitled to practise in the Mauritius. Ho was also still on the roll of barristers and solicitors of Fiji. In reply to a question from the Bench, Mr O’Regan said ho assumed that Mr Manila! was a British subject; but in any case tho Lav,- Practitioners Act did not provide that a barrister or solicitor must be a British subject. The■ only mark against Mr Manilal was, he said, an order made against him last year that ho must not reside in certain parts of Fiji. Mr O’Regan contended that if Mr Manilal was admitted to practice the effect would be good among the Hindus of parts of t) -' British Empire. u: Richmond, for the Auckland District 1.-. v .society, said the objection of the

• i .''li - ■ to Mr Manilal’* admission was not on wo ground that he was a Hindu. Objection was on the ground cf personal character. The society, he said, had grounds for doubting whether Mr Manilal was of fitness and character essential to enable him to practise. The society had grounds for believing that Mr Manilal had not. been a loyal subject'. Argument is proceeding.