Plea against 3-year moratorium on new law colleges: SC seeks BCI’s reply

The petitioner argued the BCI move was disproportionate and harmful to underserved regions, urging targeted reforms instead of a blanket ban.

The Supreme Court has issued notice to the Bar Council of India (BCI) on a plea by advocate Jatin Sharma challenging its July 6, 2025 notification imposing a three-year moratorium on the establishment of new centres of legal education across the country.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta sought a response from the BCI, the regulator of legal education and the legal profession, on the petition contending that the decision, taken in the name of “improving standards of legal education,” was arbitrary, disproportionate and beyond the statutory powers of the Council.

The plea argued that restricting access to legal education violated fundamental rights under Articles 14, 19(1)(g) and 21 of the Constitution. It said the stated aim of addressing deterioration in quality was not served by a blanket ban.

“The uniform nature of the moratorium is overbroad, disproportionate, and likely to harm aspirational and underserved regions without addressing the real causes of decline,” the plea stated.

It submitted that instead of enforcing standards against non-compliant institutions, the BCI had imposed a moratorium that infringes constitutional freedoms, university autonomy and public access to legal education.

The petition sought replacement of the moratorium with targeted, transparent and region-specific measures, and called for reconstitution of the Legal Education Committee and Curriculum Development Committee with participation from sitting or former judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts, senior advocates and experienced academicians.

It also sought a direction to strengthen enforcement of the Legal Education Rules, 2008, against sub-standard Centres of Legal Education through inspections, sanctions and compliance mechanisms, rather than imposing a blanket ban on new institutions.