Bar Council of India warns action against law varsity, college

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has warned Karnataka State Law University that it would not allow it to award law degrees for allowing admissions to a college lacking faculty in various subjects.

BCI, apex body governing legal education in the country, has issued a show-cause notice to the varsity and Seth Shankarlal Lahoti Law College asking why they should not be suspended from awarding degrees. It has taken strong exception to the university and the college for not complying with the norms governing legal education.

The Legal Education Committee of the BCI found that the college was refused affiliation for three-year and five-year law courses despite which it went ahead with admitting students during 2011-12 and 2012-13. The Council has directed the law university and the college not to admit students for the year 2013-14.

It was found that the college had only two faculty for non-law subjects of the five-year integrated law course. “The committee is surprised how the (law) university/ (SSL) college is granting integrated degree of five years without even having sufficient number of non-law subject teachers,” the show-cause notice says.

According to BCI, the university and college are producing students who would be “incompetent” to secure an integrated degree of law.

The varsity and the college have been given six weeks’ time to reply to the notice.