Exclusive: AP law schools take BCI to court over de-recognition, pre-empted by one week

Friday, 24 September 2010 By Legally India Law schools

Two Andra Pradesh (AP) law colleges, whose accreditation was withdrawn by the Bar Council of India (BCI) as part of its drastic pruning of law schools, have filed writ petitions in Hyderabad High Court challenging the BCI’s decision.

Visakha Law College, Visakhapatnam and Veeravali College of Law, Prakash Nagar, Rajamundry both filed writ petition on 17 September 2010 against the BCI, seeking a writ of mandamus to allow them to be part of the AP law school entrance examination LAWCET.

Both law colleges were denied accreditation to admit students at the 4 September 2010 BCI meeting, which was part of three meetings at which the BCI derecognised more than 50 law schools.

That list and the meeting’s minutes were only made public on 21 September 2010, as reported by Legally India this week, and were not communicated to the law colleges at the time the writs were filed.

However, it is understood that the state’s admissions exam convenor LAWCET was notified by the BCI of colleges that were derecognised on 16 September, one day before the writ petitions were filed by the colleges.

A representative from Veeravali law college confirmed to Legally India that the petition had been filed and that the college would also seek to challenge the BCI’s withdrawal of accreditation. The BCI declined to comment.

The writ petitions are due for their first hearing on 27 September and are listed by the AP High Court website as:

The BCI minutes of September had recorded the following in respect of the two colleges:

Visakha Law College, Visakhapatnam

Having regard to the fact that the Legal Education Committee is not likely to meet again in the near future and since orders will have to be passed in respect of the colleges where inspection have been carried out we allowed the office to mention in respect of the Visakha Law College, Visakhapatnam. Having perused the report of the inspection committee, we have taken into account all the facts, circumstances and the records we are satisfied that the institution neither deserves an accreditation for a 3 year nor a 5 year course. Issue notice to show cause as to why it should not be closed and why recognition should not be withdrawn? Injunction to be issued against further admissions. In respect of the previous batches, issue notice to the Vice Chancellor, Andhra University to show cause how the students of the earlier batches can be accommodated in neighbouring institutions. Notwithstanding the fact that the college has not even deposited the guarantee money, yet, we have not taken into account the non deposit of guarantee money for arriving at our conclusion.

Veeravali College of Law, Prakash Nagar, Rajamundry

Mention made by office on Veeravali College of Law, Prakash Nagar, Rajamundry. Having perused the report we have taken note of the fact that the same is a minority institution like Visakha Law College. However, having regard to the total lack of qualification of regular faculty and they being totally under-paid there is no possibility of the institution being able to impart high quality of legal education either in the 3 year course or the 5 year course. Permission to run 3 year course and 5 year course rejected. Injunction is issued against admission for the years 2010-2011. Vice Chancellor, Andhra University to show cause how the students of the earlier batches can be adjusted.

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Bar Council of India (BCI)accreditation legal education law schools

Comments

Anonymous guest 25 Sept 2010, 04:51

+0 -0

Many congress party crooks run law schools in India. They will call Sonia and get the BCI to overturn their ban. Keep dreaming about your reforms GS!

Jyoti 26 Sept 2010, 12:09

It's unfortunate that out of the basket of shammy law schools and colleges in the country (and that's a big basket), only the 'weaker' ones with relatively less publicity bear the brunt of BCI's spring cleaning. No doubt these A.P. colleges are poor, but how much better are places like Amity, Symbiosis, and ILS ? The only difference is that the latter have big budgets, media power and are located in strategically important cities. Other than that, there is little to choose between Vishaka law college and ILS law college. Even some of the "national" law schools such as the ones in bhopal and jodhpur are simply producing one-dimensional zombies, though I doubt that's a shortcoming anymore.

Anonymous guest 26 Sept 2010, 17:25

there needs to be a probe against NALSAR too. serious questions have been raised about the place.

Anonymous guest 27 Sept 2010, 06:09

"some of the "national" law schools such as the ones in bhopal and jodhpur are simply producing one-dimensional zombies"

Excuse me, you might want to elaborate on that statement. I don't know about Bhopal, but the "products" of NLU Jodhpur are in no way inferior to those of any other law school in India. You have clearly not interacted with the students in these law schools before making such statements. Or should I take it that your are trying to suggest that ALL law schools in India are producing one-dimensional zombies? In that case, that's pretty much the same tale everywhere, including our coveted IITs and IIMs.

Jyoti 28 Sept 2010, 03:48

Hmm. The truth is that while these national law schools have been set up with some very good intentions and their management has been given a lot of latitude to innovate, no doubt to avoid the red tape that is present in the larger universities such as DU, CU, etc. Unfortunately freedom to innovate often results in outlandish ideas. Take the new law school in Jodhpur - they offer a B.Sc. LLB program that comprises of some reasonably in depth study of physical sciences such as biology and chemistry ! I am given to understand that undergrad students spend precious time not in the study of law but in dissection and chemical experiments. Most of them have no idea why they are made to undertake such study and stumble when asked to explain what they gain out of it. Their education in law is a great deal behind NLSIU and it is apparent when they are engaged in a discussion. At the risk of sounding conservative, I believe this is nothing if not a sham not only on the students of Jodhpur but on the profession, on students of other colleges and on prospective employers as well. Hopefully the BCI will put and end to these shenanigans.

I also wish to state for the record, that I interact with law graduates from all sorts of colleges in the country and what I write is from my experience - close to ten years now.

Anonymous guest 29 Sept 2010, 15:52

To # 1 - I dont think you can call these steps of BCI as "reforms"; it appears the present BCI Chairman is acting in haste just to create a name & jockeying for a space in the political system.
In my personal role as a stakeholder in the legal education system for the last few years and my personal work with some of the topmost global education majors I have no hesitation in saying that whatever is happening in the name of current BCI "reforms" is nothing but cronyism of the worst kind at top echelons of the legal education regulator - this is worse because the current dispensation is portrayed as divnity and then they are respporting to such tactics (the closest parallel I have is of CWG mess and Suresh Kalmadi, by the time the media and everybody else realize the long term damage, it will be too late). Beyond this I cant say much in this blog.

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