“You should be more vigilant, inspect Law Colleges, Universities”, SC to BCI

The Bar Council of India (BCI) did not find favour with the Supreme Court today, with the latter remarking that the regulator of legal education in India ought to be more vigilant and should conduct inspection of law colleges and universities..The remark was made by Justice SA Bobde during the fag end of the hearing in the case relating to the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT)..The BCI, represented by Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra, had told the Court that it would like to place its suggestions regarding conducting CLAT..The Court had directed that the BCI could take part in the meeting which will be convened by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and raise its case there..After passing an order to that effect, Justice Bobde turned to Mishra and said,.“Mr. Mishra, you should be more vigilant. You should be inspecting the Law Colleges and Universities. Legal education is going on as per the standards of [unclear].”.Mishra tried to tell the Court that there are guidelines in place, but Justice Bobde said,.“We know that. What we are saying is whether any inspection is being conducted to determine whether these Colleges and Universities are adhering to the same”..The Court pulled up the BCI at the fag end of the hearing of Prof Shamnad Basheer’s PIL, after expressing an inclination towards handing the responsibility of conducting CLAT to the National Testing Agency (NTA)..The Bench also ordered the MHRD to convene a meeting of all the parties to the case along with the NTA and BCI. The MHRD is required to submit a report to the Supreme Court containing its recommendations on how CLAT should be conducted.