Colleges accuse BCI of high fee, lack of support and harassment

  • | Monday | 18th February, 2019

The meet was backed by all law colleges of the state. For syllabus, BCI can discuss with affiliating university,” he said.Rajan said colleges which refuse to seek BCI nod are harassed. Why should BCI conduct same thing for a fee which the universities have already done. There is no infrastructure development fund for colleges,” he said.Komawar says BCI focuses on legal profession while the new statutory body would focus on education. It is like we are under two masters,” he said.Rajan added that the Bombay high court has already stayed inspections by BCI.

Nagpur: Even as voices for new governing body grow louder, the simmering rift between Bar Council of India (BCI) and law colleges affiliated to traditional state universities has come to fore.Last Saturday, the Principals’ Conclave 2019 passed a resolution to request the central government to establish an expert body of academicians and law professionals to be called All India Council of Legal Education to lay down the stand of legal education in India.What led to principals and managements of aided and unaided law colleges press for the new apex body is constant alleged harassment by BCI inspection teams, exorbitant fee for course recognition and lack of support in developmental activities.As per the resolution, the apex body has been charging exorbitant fee for approving affiliation granted by universities without issuing any receipts. The principals, through the resolution, also questioned the functioning of the BCI and its capability in raising standard of legal education.According to BCI website, the statutory body has been charging Rs50,000 for application, Rs3lakh per course for inspection, Rs5lakh per honours’ course for inspection and Rs5lakh for universities. Though the fee has to be deposited through demand draft, colleges feel receipts for the same must be issued.Principals said the fee and recognition are “unnecessary” hurdles put up by the BCI.SM Rajan, director of Central India College of Law, said private colleges function without grants. “It becomes difficult to pay to BCI. Why should BCI conduct same thing for a fee which the universities have already done. It is like we are under two masters,” he said.Rajan added that the Bombay high court has already stayed inspections by BCI. “They can only inspect universities and not colleges. For syllabus, BCI can discuss with affiliating university,” he said.Rajan said colleges which refuse to seek BCI nod are harassed. “Ultimately, students are the suffers because BCI wouldn’t issue them the Sanad as they belong to such colleges,” he said.Nagpur University’s Babasaheb Ambedkar College of Law principal Shrikant Komawar said colleges have complained about never getting any assistance from the BCI in return of the costly inspection and recognition. “Even students have to later pay additional fee for registration with the Bar. There is no infrastructure development fund for colleges,” he said.Komawar says BCI focuses on legal profession while the new statutory body would focus on education. “BCI’s workload and jurisdiction is huge. Senior academicians and experienced teachers better know how to run colleges,” he said.Other resolutions passed by the conclave are for establishing a Law University, separate faculty of law under traditional universities, scrapping of CET for law courses, and grant-in-aid. The meet was backed by all law colleges of the state.

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