The Bar Council of India has introduced new guidelines to regulate the use of social media and digital platforms by advocates, law students and legal interns.

Under the new BCI circular, individuals applying for enrolment as advocates will now be required to submit a standalone affidavit or compliance acknowledgement confirming that they will not misuse court proceedings, confidential client information, chamber material or professional legal content.

The undertaking must also cover the unauthorised use of professional identity, misleading legal information, artificial intelligence-generated content, deepfakes, voice-cloned audio and other forms of synthetic or manipulated digital material.

The BCI has further directed applicants to undertake that they will not publish, circulate or use client-related or chamber-related information without proper authorisation.

Through its communication dated July 17, the Bar Council of India instructed all State Bar Councils to introduce the prescribed affidavit or compliance acknowledgement for future advocate enrolments and other regulatory processes.

The move appears aimed at strengthening professional accountability and preventing the misuse of legal identity, confidential information and AI-generated content across social media platforms.