New Delhi [India], July 24 (ANI): Citing serious concerns over the quality of legal education and the continued functioning of deficient law colleges, the Bar Council of India (BCI) has directed all universities imparting legal education to immediately conduct physical inspections of every constituent and affiliated law college under their jurisdiction.
The BCI said universities have a primary and continuing responsibility to ensure that affiliated institutions comply with the standards prescribed under the Rules of Legal Education, 2008, and that this responsibility does not end with the grant or renewal of affiliation.
In a press release issued on Friday, the BCI said all universities must complete the inspection exercise and submit a consolidated university-wise compliance report within six weeks.
The Council has asked Vice-Chancellors, Registrars, Deans and Heads of Law Faculties to carry out actual physical inspections instead of relying on affidavits, photographs or documents submitted by law colleges.
According to the BCI, universities must constitute one or more inspection teams to verify whether every Centre of Legal Education has the prescribed infrastructure, qualified faculty, library resources, academic facilities and institutional capacity required under the Rules of Legal Education, 2008. The inspections must be comprehensive and institution-specific.
The Council said inspection teams should verify classrooms, libraries and reading facilities, current textbooks and journals, electronic databases, computer and internet facilities, moot court rooms, legal aid clinics, seminar and tutorial facilities, common rooms, sanitation, accessibility, fire and safety measures, administrative offices and other mandatory infrastructure.
The BCI has also directed universities to carefully verify faculty details, including the actual presence of teachers, their qualifications, appointment letters, joining reports, workload, attendance, salary payments through banking channels and compliance with UGC pay norms.
It said part-time or visiting faculty cannot replace the mandatory full-time core faculty prescribed under the Rules of Legal Education.
The Council has further instructed universities to identify and discontinue any impermissible weekend, evening, compressed or shift-based classes that dilute the regular character of law courses.
It said any arrangement that substitutes regular classroom teaching with occasional weekend or evening classes or facilitates proxy attendance must be stopped immediately, and no further admissions should be permitted under such arrangements.
The BCI said that where a law college is found deficient in essential infrastructure, faculty, library facilities, prescribed teaching hours or other mandatory requirements, the university must immediately initiate steps to withdraw or discontinue its affiliation and inform the Council. Universities have also been directed to report any false declarations, fabricated faculty records, misleading photographs, shifting of premises, excess admissions or other violations detected during the inspections.
It has also clarified that university affiliation is not a substitute for BCI approval. Universities have been asked to verify that every law college, course, section and intake has valid and subsisting BCI approval, and no admissions should be allowed where such approval is absent.
The BCI has directed that the entire exercise, including inspections, scrutiny, passing of appropriate orders and submission of consolidated reports, be completed within six weeks. Universities have also been asked to acknowledge receipt of the circular within three working days, appoint a nodal officer for implementation and furnish a course-wise and campus-wise list of all law colleges under them. Failure to complete the exercise within the stipulated period will be placed before the competent committee of the BCI for appropriate regulatory consideration.
The Council said the directions were issued after it took note of the oral observations reportedly made by the Supreme Court during the hearing of K.R. Sudersan v. Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry regarding the quality of legal education and the continued functioning of deficient law colleges.
It added that the objective of the exercise is not to disrupt genuine institutions or prejudice students, but to ensure that every recognised law degree is earned through proper teaching, adequate infrastructure, qualified full-time faculty and strict compliance with prescribed standards. (ANI)
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