“A larger revolution than even in the telecom sector awaits us,” were the opening lines from Kapil Sibal, the Union Minister for Human Resource Development, when he was presenting the Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operation) Bill, 2010 (Bill) before the Cabinet. Kapil Sibal feels that entry of foreign universities in higher education will lead to an increase in choices, encourage competition and benchmark quality.

In 2007, the Union Cabinet had cleared the Foreign Universities Bill, but its allies, the Left parties, had opposed the Bill. Now with the Left out of the picture, the Union Cabinet has once again cleared the Foreign Universities Bill.

This time, it is the turn of the Bar Council of India (BCI) and the Directorate of Legal Education (DLE) to oppose the Bill. S.N.P Sinha, the BCI Chairman had told media persons that, “The State Bar Councils and the BCI have decided to oppose the Bill and wants deliberations before the final draft is tabled before the Parliament”. The Bar Councils have also asked their members to wear black bands in protest on March 22.

Speaking to Bar & Bench, the newly appointed Vice Chairman of BCI, Faisal Rizvi said “We are not opposing entry of foreign universities, but are opposing the controls and regulations governing them. Even China has allowed foreign universities with certain riders and regulations attached. We are also opposing the manner in which these Universities are being introduced”. “Government has not bothered to consult with Vice Chancellors of Indian universities on the effect of such Bills on the existing Universities and the manner in which they are governed” he added.

Bar & Bench also spoke to Professor V.B. Coutinho, the first Director of the DLE and former Dean of the University Law College, Bangalore, who along with the BCI, have opposed the Bill for different reasons. DLE was set up early this year to shoulder the responsibility of legal education and is set to prepare an action plan on the subject for the next decade.

Here are excerpts of the conversation with Professor Coutinho:

Foreign Law firms’ back door entry

Foreign Law Firms are waiting for entering India. By allowing Foreign Universities, even they (Foreign Law firms) will get back door entry into the Indian legal market. Bombay High Court has stopped them from entering, but we do not want Foreign Universities Bill to support these foreign law firms.

One step will lead to the other. If Foreign Universities are allowed, then the Foreign Firms may want the students who have graduated from these Foreign Universities to be employed and later forcing the country to open doors for them.

Commission vs BCI

Since 1926, BCI has been regulating legal education. Now under the Bill, a Commission, which has strength of 3 permanent members and 3 part time members, will regulate not only legal education, but also the entire higher education in this country. It’s a huge affair and will lead to chaos if not regulated well. You tell me whether such a commission can monitor more than 1,000 law colleges, let alone thousands of other universities?

Quality legal education and affordability

Those who say foreign universities will increase the quality of legal education in India-they are talking rubbish! When the National Law Schools were started in 1987, we had only one; today there are 13 National Law Schools. That’s the way of improving. Foreign Universities will only charge heavy fees and will only get rich students and not the brilliant ones. We must create our own infrastructure, introduce scholarships for the poorer students and stipends for advocates. There are 950 colleges under DLE and we are aware of the need to increasing quality and that cannot happen by bringing Foreign Universities in the existing form.

The George Washington University Law School has a knowledge sharing Memorandum of Understanding with Aligarh Muslim University. Most Indian Universities are keen on western collaborations. Newly established Universities such as Jindal Global Law School charges Rs. 5 lakhs (US$ 10,400) per annum are wooing students with their Global Faculty and approach towards teaching. 

The Parliament session ends on May 7, 2010 and the Bill may be tabled before the Lok Sabha before it closes.