BCI asks Delhi University to shut evening law colleges

The Bar Council of India on Monday asked the Delhi University to shut down colleges offering law courses in evening shifts.

The recommendation was made after a committee of the BCI, the apex regulatory body for legal education and legal profession in India, submitted an adverse report about the infrastructure and quality of education being imparted at the centres of the Delhi University’s Law Faculty.

At present, around 800 students are enrolled in the Delhi University’s evening colleges teaching law.

The report, which was sent to the university on Saturday, August 6, is expected to resolve a legal tangle and pave the way for admission counselling to begin at the Law Faculty after it was postponed twice already.

“The matter has been communicated to us and we have placed the same before the academic council. It has been decided that we will follow the BCI rules and recommendations,” a senior Delhi University official said.

In an unprecedented move, the BCI in 2014 had decided to de-recognise the Delhi University’s law course after it failed to seek timely extension of the affiliation of its three centres, namely Campus Law Centre, Law Centre-I and Law Centre-II. However, it was granted a provisional extension of affiliation for the 2014-15 session after the university proposed to shift the centres to a new building, which it claimed had adequate space for the faculty to run the courses properly.

Recently, after a fresh inspection by a BCI panel, the council had noted that besides fresh violations, the illegalities earlier highlighted remained unattended.

Following this, the BCI issued it a showcause notice to explain the “illegalities” in its functioning, including more than permissible student strength, lack of infrastructure and faculty.

The council had in January communicated to the university to shut down colleges offering law courses in the evening shifts, saying such programmes do not ensure proper quality of legal education.

Eminent figures like finance minister Arun Jaitley, former HRD minister Kapil Sibal, Supreme Court Judge Rohinton Nariman, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati and former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi are among the alumni of the Delhi University’s Faculty of Law.