Muristek
New Delhi, April 16
Almost 90 per cent of government-run law colleges have an acute dearth of infrastructure and faculty, many unfilled vacancies for the last 15-20 years, the Bar Council of India (BCI) has told the Supreme Court.
Govts granting NOCs recklessly
The standard of legal profession has a direct bearing on the standard of law teaching. State governments are recklessly granting NOCs to universities. Bar Council of India
In an affidavit filed in the top court, the BCI highlighted the shortage of faculty and poor infrastructure in many law colleges. Noting that the standard of legal profession has a direct bearing on the standard of law teaching, the regulator of legal education and profession said state governments were recklessly granting no-objection certificates (NOCs) to universities without examining the infrastructure.
The affidavit has been filed in compliance with the top court's March 15 order, asking the BCI to spell out steps to improve the standards in legal profession and legal education in India.
Narrating the problems faced by it in maintaining the standards of legal education, the BCI said the implementation of its rules was in the hands of universities and state governments which granted affiliation casually, without any verification of the information provided by law colleges.
The BCI said it has earmarked around 500 law colleges which were sub-standard or below standard and a team led by former judges/senior advocates and noted academicians would conduct surprise visits of such institutions.
The BCI said it was considering asking senior advocates or lawyers having 25 years of standing at the Bar to engage at least five young lawyers as juniors in their chambers.
It lamented that only a few universities showed interest in research in the field of legal education as a result of which students were attracted to foreign countries for higher education.
Terming the one-year LLM course as an "ornamental degree", the BCI said it had tried to scrap it. However, the 'Bar Council of India Legal Education (Post-Graduate, Doctoral, Executive, Clinical and other Continuing Education) Rules, 2020' was challenged in the top court, it submitted.