Official recognition of 25 law Colleges may be withdrawn by Bar Council of India (BCI)
BCI may withdraw official recognition of 25 Law colleges – As per the report by various news media, Bar Council of India (BCI) panel has recommended de-recognition of 25 law colleges. The BCI has recommended de-recognition of these colleges after it found that these colleges were enrolling students without proper teaching staff in violation of the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines.
The panel also found that the colleges were not paying their faculty members as per the UGC norms, due to which they have been facing under staffing. See Top 25 Law Colleges in India
The Bar Council of India (BCI), which is the regulator body for legal education in the country, has also directed all law colleges to transfer salaries of their teacher through electronic means to stop the practice of underpaying them. Also See Top Law Entrance Exams in India
BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra and co-chairmen Ved Prakash Sharma and S Prabakaran have signed a resolution according to which, all colleges are required to submit their six-monthly certified bank statements to show that salaries were paid to all teachers in compliance with the UGC rules.
The recommendation been placed before the BCI’s Legal Education Committee (LEC) suggesting disciplinary action against the 25 law colleges. The committee will issue show cause notice to institutes across the country as per the procedure.
Co-Chairmen Ved Prakash Sharma said that the BCI have been receiving complaints against these law colleges stating that the institutions were operating without proper staff since the employers do not wish to pay salaries as per the UGC rules. He said that, “A college cannot be allowed to run in violation of the UGC guidelines.”
“The BCI feels that it needs to have a robust and healthy legal education system it needs to bring down the number of law colleges. The suggestion to de-recognise the 25 colleges is a step in this direction,” said the Co-Chairmen Sharma
In this regard, BCI has imposed a three-year moratorium on opening new institutes saying that, it will work on improving standards of the existing law colleges. It added that the colleges without proper infrastructure or faculty will be closed down over the next three years. It also added that the moratorium would not be applicable to establishing a new National Law University if a state proposes it.