No new law colleges for next 3 years, says Bar Council of India

The BCI imposed a moratorium on opening new law colleges for the next three years. This restriction, however, does not apply to the National Law University. Find details here…

The Bar Council of India (BCI) decided to impose a moratorium on the opening of any new law colleges in the country over the next three years. However, this restriction does not apply to the national law colleges, if proposed by the state government where there is no such varsity. The resolution was passed for an urgent need for improving the quality of legal education with the mushrooming of law schools across the country. The BCI also added that it would work on improving the existing institutions, and those without proper infrastructure or faculty would be shut.

Speaking on it, BCI Chairman Manan Mishra said, “The idea behind the moratorium is to clamp down on the unregulated growth of law colleges across the country and also to improve the falling standards of legal education. For the next three years, the Bar Council of India will lay stress on improvement of standards of existing institutions and institutions that have no proper infrastructure and faculty will be closed down.“

For setting up a new law college in the country, the body first has to get a no-objection certificate (NoC) from the state government, followed by an affiliation letter from a university. Thereafter, approval is required from the BCI, which appoints a committee headed by a retired judge of a high court to carry out a physical inspection of the new institute. Only after the approval by this committee,  a new law college can start functioning.

The Bar Council of India, established by an act of Parliament and exercising powers given to it under the Advocates Act, 1961, promotes legal education and lays down standards of such education in consultation with universities and state bar councils. It is also responsible for granting affiliation to all new law colleges.

The resolution expresses concerns at the falling standards of law education in the country. It was pointed out that there are about 1,500 law colleges in the country. Several colleges are running without proper infrastructure and faculty.

“There is no dearth of advocates and the existing institutions are sufficient to produce the required number of law graduates annually,” the statement added. There were 1.3 million lawyers in India as of 2011 as per the data from Bar Council. In the year 2016, a similar attempt was made by BCI to regulate the rising number of law colleges, and an advisory was issued to state governments and universities to not give NOCs and affiliations.