Mushrooming of law colleges: BCI imposes 3-year moratorium on granting affiliation to new institutes

In view of their indiscriminate growth, the Bar Council of India has unanimously resolved to stop granting affiliation to new law colleges for three years with effect from the academic year 2020-2021..The decision was taken by the Bar Council of India in its meeting held on August 11..A Press Release by the Council has clarified that the only the pending proposals for affiliations would be considered and no fresh application for the same shall be entertained..The decision would also not apply to National Law Universities run by state governments..The decision follows a proposal to this effect made by Bar Council of India member, Ved Prakash Sharma..In his proposal to the Bar Council of India, Sharma had raised issues with respect to sub-standard legal education in the country, which was ultimately affecting the standard of the legal profession..Calling for a “drastic control in the growth of the new law colleges in the country”, Sharma had proposed that a moratorium of at least three to five years to be imposed on the approval of affiliation of new law colleges, particularly in states with “disproportionate” number of colleges..“This will serve a far important purpose i.e. we would be able to take care of the standard of legal education in the existing colleges with the availability of time and resources. It is argued that such a decision may come under challenge in Courts. My view is that we should be prepared for such an eventuality, if it arises at all, because our decision is going to be in the larger interest of standard of legal education which ultimately determines the standard of legal; profession and even the judiciary.”.Agreeing with Sharma, the Council observed that there were enough institutions in all parts of the country to feed the law courts and to serve the people..“There is no dearth of advocates and the existing institutions are sufficient to produce number of law graduates annually.”.Therefore, while imposing a three-year moratorium on grant of fresh affiliations, the Council stated that the need of the hour was not to more law colleges but on improvement of standard of the existing institutions and standard of teaching..Read the Press Release: