New Delhi: 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 them and complete the exercise within six weeks.
In a circular issued by BCI chairman and senior advocate Manan Kumar Mishra to vice-chancellors, registrars and heads of law faculties, it said the inspections were aimed at verifying whether law colleges continued to meet the prescribed standards relating to faculty, infrastructure, teaching and academic facilities.
"The Bar Council of India has emphasised that the responsibility of an affiliating university is primary, continuing and substantive in nature. It does not conclude with the initial grant, extension or renewal of affiliation by any university and because of failures of universities, the courts many a times, have been passing comments against the Bar Council of India," it said.
The BCI said it had serious concerns over the quality of legal education and observed that universities were granting affiliation to law colleges without proper inspections or verification of the information submitted by them.
It said the responsibility of affiliating universities was "primary, continuing and substantive" and did not end with the initial grant or renewal of affiliation.
"A university is required to satisfy, through actual and periodic physical verification, that every Law College under it possesses the prescribed infrastructure, qualified faculty, library resources, academic facilities and institutional capacity and that it continues to maintain those standards throughout the period of affiliation," the release said.
The circular directed universities to constitute one or more inspection teams to physically verify every Centre of Legal Education.
The teams have been asked to assess the availability and adequacy of classrooms, libraries, journals, computer and internet facilities, moot court rooms, legal aid clinics, seminar facilities, sanitation, accessibility, fire safety measures and administrative infrastructure.
Universities have also been asked to verify the availability of qualified faculty, prescribed teaching hours and regular conduct of classes.
The BCI further directed universities to identify and discontinue any impermissible weekend, evening or shift-based classes that dilute the mandatory character of regular law courses.
It said no further admissions should be permitted under such arrangements and warned that graduates from such courses would not be permitted to practise law.
"The Bar Council of India has directed for the entire exercise, including physical inspection, scrutiny, passage of appropriate orders and submission of a consolidated university-wise report to the Bar Council of India, to be completed within six weeks," it said.
The BCI has also asked universities to acknowledge the circular within three working days, appoint a nodal officer for implementation and submit a consolidated university-wise compliance report within six weeks. It warned that failure to carry out genuine inspections would invite regulatory action.
This report was published from a syndicated wire feed. Apart from the headline, the EdexLive Desk has not edited the copy.