Who should regulate law schools in India?

Bar & Bench News Network

Aug 09, 2010

The Ministry of Human Resources Development (HRD) and Ministry of Law and Justice (along with Ministry of Health) are at loggerheads over taking reigns of legal education in India. The present scenario grants full control of legal education to the Ministry of Law and Justice.

The HRD Ministry plans to have all streams of education under a single regulatory authority in order to discourage disparity.

In order to oppose this change, the Ministry of Law has drafted Higher Legal Education and Research Bill, 2010 (Law Ministry Bill) to counter the HRD Ministry’s National Commission for Higher Education and Research Bill, 2010 (HRD Ministry Bill), which had proposed the formation of a single authority for higher education, with much wider powers than the present University Grants Commission (UGC). The Ministry of Law has decided to form a National Commission for Higher Legal Education and Research, comprising of seven members to regulate, set norms, standards of academic quality for accreditation and for benchmarking higher legal education institutions for attainment of a higher standard to meet the changing needs and challenges of the society.

However, the HRD Ministry seems to be on its toes too, with implementing change and receiving each States approval to bring in a super regulator. The State education ministers have backed HRD Ministry’s proposal to bring medical and legal education under a single authority. The HRD Ministry Bill has in its purview all fields of higher education including technical, legal, medical and agriculture. The HRD Ministry had cited the recommendations of the National Knowledge Commission and the Yashpal Committee to bring all streams of higher education under the regulatory control of a single authority.

The Yashpal Committee report talks of the deemed university status to be abandoned and that all deserving deemed varsities be either converted into full-fledged universities or scrapped and a GRE like test be evolved for university education. The committee presses the issue of removal of regulatory bodies like UGC, AICTE, NCTE to be replaced by a seven-member Commission for Higher Education and Research (CHER) under an Act of Parliament.

The Yashpal Committee also suggested that the jurisdiction of other regulators i.e. the Medical Council of India, Bar Council of India (BCI) and etc. be confined to administrative matters, with universities taking up their academic responsibilities.

According to a press release of the Law Ministry Bill quoted in the Hindu, “Role of the Bar Council of India (BCI) is to promote accountability and discipline in the regulatory systems of higher legal education institutions, develop curriculum framework with specific reference to new or emerging or inter-disciplinary fields of law in addition to encouraging law universities to formulate a ‘code of good practices' in leadership, governance and management. The HRD Ministry’s Bill for setting up National Commission on Higher Education and Research wants to take over all these powers from the BCI’s control. In addition to the above powers it shall take measures by regulations, to determine, coordinate and maintain standards of higher legal education and research and will promote autonomy within higher legal educational institutions and in the development of a framework for institutional accountability, apart from “encouraging law universities to innovate in higher legal education and research.”

The BCI has released its Vision Statement and abides by it to make changes for the improvement of legal education and clearing the Bar. The BCI is holding the All India Bar Examination (AIBE) nationwide for the first time. It has set its question papers for December 5 which are in the process of translation and alongside forms are being issued at State Bar Councils.

At this juncture the BCI’s control over conducting the Bar Exam can be questionable. If the HRD Ministry gains control over the legal education, the decision to conduct an AIBE will depend on HRD Ministry and not with BCI.

It is atypical to notice a press release by the PIB recently with Minister of Law Veerappa Moily passing a message to the Rajya Sabha on behalf of the Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh, who called for an urgent overhaul of the present legal education system of the country in order to update it with the current socio-economic scenario, which is the need of the hour. Moily informed the House.. “after consultations with various groups and Universities, a report of the major recommendations was prepared. It includes establishing four national level institutions at the regional level known as Institutes of Advanced Legal Studies and Research which will be Centres of Excellence and will emphasise upon research and up-gradation of faculty skills. There will be a National Law University in each State as a school of excellence”.

This gets us to a see-saw end with the HRD Ministry at one end and the Ministry of Law at the other. Ultimately the Prime Minister will be acting as the referee and be the deciding factor of choosing the rightful regulator of legal education in India.

Comments(8)

1. "Bar Council of India or form a separate body just for regulation of law schools comprising of judges, professors, law practitioners, social lawyers, etc.". Yash, Delhi
2. "what many peopel don't know is that the VCs of NLUs are basically dictators. students need to have a greater say.". Guest, Mumbai
3. "too late too little". Alankar, Jamshedpur
4. " it should be the bar council of india, supreme body of lawyers who better judge the ground realities for the up coming lawyers and the problems they usually face. It will also be good for the legal system in future so that the legal system can be brought at par with foriegn countries. Best legal brains in india will stop the in flow of foriegn law firms in india.". Rahul Mohan, Karnal
5. "There should be a higher authority probably consisting of lawyers ensuring the adherence to correct practises being followed at initial stages for the right grooming of our lawyers in order to benchmark with the best of international practises being followed.". Aditya Soi, Delhi
6. "The cause of legal education will only be helped if the HRD ministry controls it. The Bar Council of India should be confined to as an organized body of law practitioners which conducts a standardized Bar Exam just like the Institution of Engineers which also conducts its own version of certification examinations for people desiring to qualify as practicing engineers. Logically speaking, there is and should not be any role more than this for the Bar Council or the Ministry of Law and Justice in the legal profession.". Achintya Nath Sexena, Kharagpur
7. "Today the condition/ position of School of Law or Law colleges are measurabe and critical like the Secondary Schools in the hand of Management bodies. These bodies do not take Academic care as well as administrative care. The reason is that norms for appointment of teaching Staff is fixed by UGC and Management bodies are empower for appointments Syllabus is by Bar Council, Administration is in hand of Universities and release of payment is in hand of State Governments.Another issue of medium of languages i.e. Regional Language are imposing for teaching of Law. So, it is nothing but hurdles / barriers to provide legal education to student instead of make it easy to each and every individuals for understanding and attachment to law. Now here like Indian Medical Association, Association of Technical Education through out India and on International level only one authority or association should be setup by the HRD / Law Ministry who should dealt with all type of aspects instead of intereferance of various Authorities, Educational Instiutions in this field. This work should be done by Bar Council of India or a Seprate Law Commission should be established with qualified legal professional, Legal Accademeics, Judges of Supreme Court and High Court with Veto powers for each and every issue. In my view in this way legal education school can able to provide / understand the object of Law to a simple and ordinary man in India. It is the need of time because several laws are present but Citizens are aware of the laws. The BAR Council or Law Commission form for development of Law should also use a separate media or Channel on TV for each and every aspects to be noticed to public for each and every law. ". Dr. Md. Qutubuddin Md. Anweruddin, Madina Nagar, Nanded, Maharashtra State, INDIA
8. "The BCI is doing a lot of good these days..the legal profession is very different from others and so is the study curriculum..the BCI knows this and understands what students need and what the law schools should be..i think the PM should go with BCI.". Sushree Pholgu, National Law Univerisity, Orissa

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