BCI responds to Legal Academics petition on lack of consultation for reforms in legal education

Around 80 legal academics from various Indian and foreign Universities had sent a Petition to the Bar Council of India (BCI) alleging a complete absence of consultation by the BCI with academicians on reforms in legal education.This Petition was drafted by Prof. Shamnad Basheer who initiated this exercise to urge BCI to consult more meaningfully with legal academics while framing legal education policy..Around 80 legal academics from various Indian and foreign Universities had sent a Petition to the Bar Council of India (BCI) alleging a complete absence of consultation by the BCI with academicians on reforms in legal education..This Petition was drafted by Prof. Shamnad Basheer who initiated this exercise to urge BCI to consult more meaningfully with legal academics while framing legal education policy..Some of the prominent Professors who have signed the Petition include Prof. M. P. Singh, Prof. Upendra Baxi, Prof. N.S. Gopalakrishnan, Prof. Ved Kumari, Dr. Nick Robinson and Dr. V. Umakanth..In the Petition, the academicians recommend that a majority of the BCI’s legal education committee be members of the legal academy. The Petition further states that such consultation, “as well as future consultations, should be part of an open and transparent process, designed to elicit the best set of responses from legal academia.”.The Petition also took very strong exception to the BCI’s statement to the Parliamentary Standing Committee. The BCI while making a statement before the Committee said, “the lawyers are well conversant with the problems, and they are the best person to decide as to what is needed for the students perusing legal education. The norms, curriculum and syllabus are thus, the domain of Advocates, so far legal education is concerned. The academics have a limited role to teach the books which are almost all authored either by noted lawyers or the Judges.”.The academicians felt that the above statement reflects a seriously misguided sentiment and were severely denigratory of the role that legal academics have played and continue to play in legal education today..Further, the Petition also took exception to the new mandate of the BCI for registration of Law Teachers and Law Students for the creation of a database. It was pointed out that not only does this stipulation create a huge financial burden on academicians but also raises privacy concerns since the said data would be uploaded on a public website..BCI’s Response to the Petition.BCI Chairman, Manan Kumar Mishra has responded to Prof. Basheer through a letter dated September 12, 2012. The BCI Chairman while responding to the Petition said, “This Petition creates a doubt about the credibility of work in respect of legal education undertaken by the BCI, which I would like to clear”..He pointed out that a draft of the Rules of Legal Education, 2008 was circulated to all Universities and State Bar Council’s and only a few had responded. In fact, the BCI had been forced to send reminders and it was only after this was done that the other Universities and Bar Councils responded, added Mishra..Regarding the constitution of Legal Education Committee, Mishra said the Committee did have academicians but the same were only three in number. Furthermore, five lawyers, nominated by the BCI, have found a place in the Committee. Apart from these members, the Committee includes a retired Supreme Court Judge, a sitting Chief Justice of a High Court, Law Secretary – Government of India, UGC Chairman, Attorney General of India and Solicitor General of India..Mishra said, the BCI felt the need of a Directorate to further strengthen the Legal Education Committee and a Director was to be appointed with the status of a Vice-Chancellor along with team of other academicians. As a step in this regard, Prof. (Dr.) V. B. Coutinho, former Vice-Chancellor of Gulberga University was appointed but later he relinquished office for personal reasons. Mishra also mentioned the formation of a Curriculum Development Committee with seven academicians as its members..Furthermore, the BCI Chairman claimed to have revamped the Directorate of Legal Education and repeatedly stated that the composition of the Committee and the Directorate was “quite rich and well balanced.”.Regarding the controversial statement made before the Parliamentary Standing Committee, Mishra said that he had been quoted out of context. He defended his stance by saying that, he made that statement only to refute the idea that academics’ alone should be in formation of legal education curriculum..Finally on the requirement of registration and the creation of a web portal, Mishra said, “We can consider reducing the fee in our Legal Education Committee but we cannot give up this idea of web portal.” The reason for this, as per Mishra, was that the BCI had found the names of law teachers in the list of more than one institution, suggesting malpractice. Mishra also mentioned that there is a PIL pending in the Court in this regard..In the end Mishra said, “You were free to sit and discuss the issue with Bar Council of India instead of going to media.”.Speaking to Bar & Bench on the decision of the BCI to register law teachers and students and creation of web portal, an eminent academician remarked, “By most accounts, creating and maintaining an online database will not cost more than Rs 50,000 or a maximum Rs 1, 00, 000. However, if their plan goes through and they are able to recover from most students and faculty at law schools, they will net an amount in excess of Rs 2 crores, making it perhaps the costliest ever database the world has ever seen!”.The academician pointed out the following facts:.i) Recovery from law schools: 45 lakhs (assuming there are 900 law schools: the BCI charges Rs 5000 per law school for this registration).ii) Recovery from faculty: 1.35 crores (assuming there are an average of 5 teachers per law school, making it 4500 teachers in all, paying an amount of Rs 3000 each to the BCI for registration).iii) Recovery from students: 45 lakhs (assuming that there are at least 10 law students per class and 50 law students per University/law college. The BCI has asked each student to pay Rs 100 each)..The academician went on to say, “The total adds up to a kingly sum of more than Rs 2 crores! Not to mention that every 3 years, Rs. 1.35 crores will be added as faculty contribution. And the entire amount will increase every year with an increase in seats, increase in faculty strength and increase in new law colleges/universities.”.On another note the academician remarked, “Under section 10 (2)(b) of the Advocates Act, the Legal Education Committee set up by the BCI has 10 members. Among the ten, five should be from the Council itself and five should be co-opted by the Council not being members of the Council. However at present there are thirty six members in the Council. Under what authority the strength of the members has been increased, is a question left unanswered.”.In a recent development, the Legal Education Committee has put up a notification on the BCI website inviting suggestions from persons, academics, students, lawyers, organizations, institutions or any authority/ individual in legal field or non legal field to suggest ways and means for improving legal education in the country. This development seems to be result of this Petition.