The Bar Council of India (BCI) affiliated 92 new law colleges in nine months last year, according to the law ministry’s 2014-2015 annual report of 244 pages that was published around a week ago (excerpt below), which is nearly double the number of new colleges admitted in the entire 2012-13 year.

The BCI’s 10-member Legal Education Committee (LEC), which inspects law colleges and recommends to the BCI if the inspected colleges are fit for affiliation, granted approval of affiliation to 92 new colleges between 1 April 2014 and 31 December 2014, according to the report.

That works out to an average of around 10 new colleges affiliated per month, or one every three days.

Affiliation was denied to only two colleges, while 14 colleges were asked to show cause why their affiliation should be extended.

A total of 223 existing colleges’ affiliation was extended over that period.

During the academic year 2012-2013, the BCI had granted affiliation to 51 new law colleges across India, according to a response by the BCI to a right to information (RTI) request by Legally India.

Two law colleges were denied affiliation during in 2012-13.

BCI vice chairman SL Gowda had, in December 2014, told Legally India that the total number of law colleges in the country were around 1200 then, having mushroomed from 800 in two years – and that the BCI planned to take more stringent measures to control the growth of law colleges in India.

Photo by Janine