Law teachers ask BCI for say in legal ed & to scrap compulsory web portal fees

Wednesday, 22 August 2012 By Legally India Law schools

80 Indian law teachers from 32 Indian and three foreign universities addressed a petition to the Bar Council of India (BCI) yesterday, urging the regulator to “consult more meaningfully” with legal academics while framing policies related to legal education.

The petition also requested the BCI to take back its 28 May circular announcing a mandatory fee-based registration for all law teachers, students, and law colleges for the purposes of an online database.

In the petition, the teachers took “very strong exception” to a statement of the BCI made in the parliamentary standing committee reviewing the Higher Education and Research Bill 2011 (HER) this year, in which the regulator said that “lawyers are well conversant with the problems, and they are the best person to decide as to what is needed for the students perusing legal education”.

The BCI reportedly added: “The academics have a limited role to teach the books which are almost all authored either by noted lawyers or the judges.”

But in their petition the academics asked for “maximal autonomy” for law schools to prescribe the minimum mandatory courses to be offered and the course curriculums to be followed.

They expressed concern over the fact that the BCI’s legal education committee recently has only had a small minority of legal educators among its members, the latest representation being two out of a total of 36 members.

They also pointed out that the National Knowledge Commission has already “made strong note” of the “consultative deficit” by the legal education committee with legal academics.

The BCI has been fighting with the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) about who should end up regulating legal education, but the petition does not get into that issue.

NUJS Kolkata professor Shamnad Basheer, who has drafted the petition, told Legally India when signatures were first requested around a month ago: “We’re not getting into the existing structure within the [Advocates] Act. There are a number of conflicted views on those issues. But within the existing structure, the fact that [the BCI] have not consulted meaningfully [is at issue]. This takes the debate to an open platform.”

According to the academics, lack of consultation has resulted in “alien” and “excessively burdensome” legal education norms, from the perspective of law schools.

Database

The petitioners also opposed the BCI’s 28 May circular proposing to create an online database of law students, teachers, colleges and advocates after collection of compulsory registration fee, including Rs 3,000 every three years from law teachers.

The alleged lack of consultation by the BCI with the academics, prior to imposing a “financial burden” on law teachers, besides throwing up concerns related to “the privacy of data that is uploaded on a public website”, was not acceptable to the academics.

They urged the BCI to remove the notification and create a modified version only after consultation with a “wide cross-section of academics” and after allowing sufficient time for public comment.

Signatories to the petition include former NUJS vice chancellor MP Singh, former Delhi University vice chancellor Upendra Baxi, Alternative Law Forum founder Lawrence Liang, a faculty at University of Oxford, one at Oklahoma University and two faculty at the National University of Singapore, including former Amarchand Mangaldas partner Dr. V Umakanth.

The petition was today also emailed by Basheer to BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra, supported by an online version of the petition signed by 250 law students and lawyers.

The email was also sent to members of parliament and HER standing committee chair Oscar Fernandez, law minister Salman Khurshid, and HRD minister Kapil Sibal.

Download the petition here

Comments

abc 22 Aug 2012, 14:31

+0 -0

How come LI never interviews Manan Mishra on contentiosu issues like entry of foreign universities, foreign law firms etc?

Jastej 22 Aug 2012, 20:05

Well, its true that there is sky rocket difference in India so far as academic law study and law practice is concerned. No offence to the law teachers but for all practical purposes a practicing advocate can give better knowledge about the legal problems than a law teacher. The best example is faced by all in our day to day life, such as: Law colleges and Universities welcome the practicing lawyers to teach their law classes but when it comes to contesting a case in the Hon'ble Courts, can a law teacher (who has not practiced ever) contest a full case on his own? The answer is no. So, I guess, the practicing advocates can play a very large role in the life of law student.

Wise man 23 Aug 2012, 12:07

In my view this shows the class and cultural divide in India. Mishraji is speaking from what he has experienced as a person from a simple background who studied in an ordinary college in Bihar. The sad reality is that 99% of law schools are in small towns and villages and are of poor quality. Had Mishraji studied at a top law school abroad or been taught by the teachers who signed the petition he would not have thought so. Conversely had the signatories of the letter studied at a small law college in Bihar they would have thought like Mishraji.

I think people from the young generation should explain to Mishraji that many faculty at the better law schools (like the ones who signed the letter) have studied at top universities abroad and know certain substantive law issues better. They may not be experts in court rules and clerical maters like black coat wallas but they know more about various statues, WTO laws etc. And abroad it is very common for people to be appointed as judges from academia.

I feel sorry for Mishraji. In his letter he complains about how Americans eat with spoons and forks instead of their hands. In our homes we also eat with spoons and forks but we are only 1% of India and Mishraji represents the true India. How do you explain to the masses that economic reforms and liberalisation is a good thing?

Wise man 23 Aug 2012, 15:34

Kian I would request you to remove my comment. It is better you remove it than indulge in such heavy censorship. I repeat that Mishraji is a graduate from Bihar and has experienced the the reality of Indian education while the people writing the letter are a privileged lot that have studied in elited Indian colleges as well as the West and there is a great cultural difference between the two mindsets. I said that if Shamnad Basheer and the others writing this petition had studied in a law school in a small town or village they would similarly be having a low opinion of academics. What the hell is offensive about what I said? I think every single person writing the petition has studied abroad. Can you point out a single person who has not and has instead got their degrees from Patna or Rai Bareilly or Marathwada?

kianganz 23 Aug 2012, 15:43

Fair enough, though the redaction wasn't that heavy, 3 lines at most.

Wise man 23 Aug 2012, 15:48

[quote name="kianganz"]Fair enough, though the redaction wasn't that heavy, 3 lines at most.[/quote]

Thanks. So maybe now I can take a chance and hope you will not censor this link:

http://myneta.info/bih2010/candidate.php?candidate_id=712

kianganz 24 Aug 2012, 19:32

That is a very cool website, didn't know something like that existed...

By the way, for those who haven't read it, the letter and spoons and forks reference is from this lengthy but interesting BCI statement on the HER Bill.

http://www.barcouncilofindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/0004-Memorandum-submitted-to-Standing-Committee.pdf

Worth reading if you're into this debate.

Dubby 30 Nov 2012, 04:10

If this letter was drafted by the top minds of the legal profession, it speaks poorly of lawyers in general. It is full of errors and spelling and grammatical mistakes. Even a legal term such as [i]mala fide[/i] is spelt [i]mala fied[/i]. It is fashionable to run down English as being a foreign language (it just happens to be one of the two official languages), but if it is used, it should be used properly.

I wonder if any of the signatories read the letter before appending their dhobi marks.

Anoop Prakash 27 Aug 2012, 10:11

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche could better explain reasons behind Mishra"ji" mentality.

Anoop Prakash 27 Aug 2012, 09:55

I salute efforts of law teachers and students, I remember Prof. Shamnad Basheer pioneered challenging the bar exam for legal practice.

I wish some1 should challenge this draconian database fee imposed by BCI in a court of law also. I have drafted petition but not willing to file in my name, I am ready to assist if any1 is willing to do so.

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