“National policy is to increase access to legal education”, DU Law Faculty in letter to BCI

Today, the Delhi High Court, while hearing the plea against reduction of L.L.B. seats in Delhi University, asked the Bar Council of India to file a counter affidavit affirming their rejection of the representation made by the varsity..The Bench of Justices Sunil Gaur and C Hari Shankar observed that the Dean of the Law Faculty had raised certain pertinent issues like the availability of infrastructure and the admission of 2,310 students to the Faculty since 1974, which have not been addressed in the BCI’s rejection letter..In the previous hearing, the Court had asked the BCI to consider the representation made by Delhi University. Also, the Court allowed the University to issue a notification for admission to 1,440 seats for its law course..Earlier, DU had made a representation to BCI asking them to reconsider its decision to restrict the number of students to 1440. The letter dated April 26 stated that it has the requisite infrastructure and teachers to accommodate more students. It states,.“We have a student teacher ratio of 1:43. With the appointment of additional teachers against the advertised posts, it will become 1:19 with the current strength of students..The national policy is to increase access to legal education. The University of Delhi contributes to this goal by providing affordable and quality legal education to students coming from various strata of society.”.Last year, 2310 students were admitted to the LL.B. program of Delhi University..Dean of the Law Faculty Prof Ved Kumari, who appeared for the Faculty in person, submitted that the Faculty had already paid Rs. 11.5 lakh to the BCI for inspection in January 2017, but the same has not been carried out as yet..Speaking to the press, she said,. “The BCI is just nit-picking while we are trying our level best to optimise the resources at our disposal and provide quality legal education to the students. Since 1974, we have not increased a single seat. It is not justified. BHU has also buckled under pressure and reduced the number of L.L.B. seats.”.BCI also rejected the representation made by the petitioner Joginder Kumar Sukhija. In its letter dated 7th June, it also submitted that the fact that Sukhija appeared as a counsel in another similar writ petition seeking several reliefs had not been disclosed before the court..Sukhija had filed the public interest litigation claiming to have been affected by the decision of BCI regarding the reduction of L.L.B. seats. His petition also claimed that this decision would adversely affect a large number of aspirants..The matter will be next heard on June 12..Read Faculty of Law’s letter to BCI (Download to view more clearly)