Bar Council of India seeks de-recognition of 25 law colleges

These colleges were found to violate the UGC guidelines. Students were being enrolled without proper teaching staff who were not being paid as per UGC norms.

A Bar Council of India (BCI) panel has suggested de-recognition of 25 law colleges. This recommendation came after it was discovered that these colleges were enrolling students without proper teaching staff in violation of the University of Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines. The panel found that the colleges were not paying their faculty members as per the UGC norms, which had also led to their understaffing.

The BCI is the regulator for legal education in the country. It has directed all law colleges to transfer salaries to their teachers electronically to stop the practice of underpaying them.

BCI Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra and Co-chairmen Ved Prakash Sharma and S Prabakaran have signed a resolution that requires all colleges to submit their six-monthly certified bank statements to show that salaries were paid to all teachers in accordance with the UGC rules.

Disciplinary action against the 25 law colleges has been placed before the BCI’s Legal Education Committee (LEC), which shall now issue show-cause notices to the institutes across the country.

According to Sharma, “BCI is cracking the whip as they have been receiving complaints alleging that these law institutes were operating without proper staff. The employers did not wish to pay salaries as per the UGC rules.” “A college cannot be allowed to run in violation of the UGC guidelines. In order to have a healthy legal education system in the country, the BCI feels that it needs to bring down the number of law colleges. The suggestion to de-recognise the 25 colleges is a step in this direction,” he added.

Private colleges constitute 75 per cent of 1,500 law colleges across the country. According to the BCI data, there are 1.7 million registered lawyers in the country and 80,000 to one lakh new advocates get enrolled every year.

In August this year, the BCI imposed a three-year moratorium on opening new institutes. It said that the stress is on improving the standards of the existing law colleges. It also added that the colleges without proper infrastructure or faculty will be closed down over the next three years. However, the moratorium would not be applicable to establishing a new National Law University (NLU), if a state proposes it.

According to Rakesh Khanna, Supreme Court Bar Association President, “The establishment of law colleges and their continuance should be monitored. The BCI should not grant affiliations without conducting proper inspections and should involve senior advocates from the bar and retired judges. Surprise checks should be held regularly.”

The LEC is required to seek compliance from the colleges with the UGC norms. Colleges are given time to overcome deficiencies if any. They have to report to the LEC’s Compliance Committee before affiliations are approved. For the renewal of affiliation, law colleges have to approach the BCI.

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