Government and Grant-in-Aid colleges have informed the university that the Bar Council of India (BCI) has not deployed an inspection team to colleges, and neither has it updated the renewal permission on the website since 2017-18. This, despite paying a fee of Rs 3.50 lakh for inspection and renewal of permission for Bachelor of Legislative Law (LLB) degrees.
Eight government and grant-in-aid colleges affiliated with GU provide 1,740 seats in the three-year LLB course, the head of GU’s admission committee for law courses told a city tabloid.
The colleges apprehend that should they admit students without BCI’s consent, the degrees might be considered invalid.
They have requested the university to add this information to the admission form so that the students are aware of the potential complications.
The tabloid claimed that at least three colleges have sent a letter to the university in the first week of June. It added that the matter was part of the agenda for the university’s need committee meeting last week.
The three grant-in-aid law colleges of Gujarat Law Society (GLS) have sought the Gujarat High Court’s intervention. Senior advocate Sudhir Nanavati represented the GLS before Justice Nikhil Kariel, emphasising the urgency owing to ongoing admissions.
Jagadish Chaudhari, the in-charge principal of Motilal Nehru Law College, was quoted as saying, “Every year, we pay the stipulated fee to the BCI to initiate the inspection process and renew the college’s permission to offer the course. We received permission from the BCI in 2017-18, but since then, despite paying the fee, no inspection team has visited nor has the renewal process been completed. If the BCI disowns the college and its permission without any prior notice, both the students and the college management will face significant trouble.”
Manoj Patel, the Principal of Government Law College, rued that despite having teaching faculties and paying the annual fee, the BCI still hasn’t given permission to the institution. “Initially, permission was granted for three years, but it was later changed to an annual process. We have been paying the fee, but we haven’t even received the receipt for the Rs3.5 lakh we paid, which we are supposed to submit to the government. We have raised this issue with the education department, but no progress has been made. We have not had any inspection for at least five to six years, and there has been no update on permission from the BCI,” he said.
