The Bar Council of India (BCI) and Maharashtra State Bar Council has cleared GLC Mumbai and all the other Maharashtra government and aided colleges that were under embargo against taking admissions. As per the minutes of Saturday, 3 September’s BCI meeting the colleges can take admissions for the academic year 2016-2017.

“They are 100 per cent all clear from our side,” said BCI member from the Maharashtra bar council Satish Deshmukh, who read out the minutes of Saturday’s meeting to us when contacted today morning.

Deshmukh told Legally India that as per agenda item number 2 and 3 in the minutes of Saturday’s meeting the BCI decided to grant one year’s time to Maharashtra government and aided colleges to complete the process of recruiting teachers in the student-teacher ratio of 40:1, and based on that condition to allow the colleges to take admissions for this academic year.

“[The Bar Council is] not stopping them [from taking admissions]. The government is ready to fulfil the condition [of recruiting teachers as per BCI guidelines], so then the situation now is just like [Delhi University],” said Deshmukh.

He said that while as per the meeting minutes it has been decided to pull “five more colleges” out of the restricted list and allow them to take admissions, practically the bar council has already given the go ahead to “at least 15 colleges” and “will allow all the others on the list subject to them meeting conditions”.

Last week the Bar Council of India (BCI) reportedly according to an anonymous BCI member quoted by the Times of India, disaffiliated GLC Mumbai, KC Law College, GJ Advani Law College and Jitendra Chauhan College of Law. The BCI declared 64 of 127 law schools in Maharashtra ineligible for taking admissions this year. All these colleges do not have the number of teachers required under the Legal Education Rules, according to the report.

Deshmukh told us that it was neither the state bar council nor the Bar Council of India that moved to disaffiliate the law colleges in the state. He said that following the orders of the Bombay high court in July in the challenge to Maharashtra’s law Common Entrance Test (CET), the government had directed government and aided colleges in the state to file for inspection by the Bar Council of India under the Legal Education Rules 2008.

“So the bar council has had a limited role to play in all of this,” he remarked. The BCI had reportedly rejected the state’s request for extension of time, earlier.

The Mumbai University released a list on Saturday night, segregating colleges under four colours: white for affiliation received from the university and colleges by the BCI, yellow for colleges approved subject to BCI approval, green for colleges that have sent compliance report to the BCI and red for admission to the college or division only after government sanction or approval letter, reported Midday.

This has left desirous candidates confused and wary of applying to their college of choice, added the report.