BCI allows evening classes and increased intake in DU for a year

The Bar Council of India on Sunday permitted Delhi University (DU) to admit students to all seats this year and run evening classes.

“The university requested for one-time concession intake of 2,310 students this year and evening classes. Our standing committee has agreed in the interest of students. We are giving this relaxation for this batch alone,” BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra was quoted as saying.

As per a BCI release, the Standing Committee of the Bar Council of India has also allowed the University to conduct evening classes for the second and third year students who have already enrolled with the faculty. It however made it clear that it would not allow the University to admit more than 480 students per centre, to the law programmes offered by it from academic year 2017-18.

While the students who have already obtained their degrees from the evening classes were permitted to be enrolled with State Bar Councils, a penalty has been imposed on the University “for lapses on its part.”

Pursuant to the announcement, the Dean of Law Faculty at Delhi University, Dr. S.C. Raina gave an undertaking stating that the conditions imposed by the BCI would be complied with from the next academic year.

In September, 2014, Faculty of Law, Delhi University had found itself in a fix after BCI decided to derecognize the law course taught at its three centres, namely Campus Law Centre, Law Centre­1 and Law Centre­ 2. This was because the Law Faculty had failed to obtain “extension of approval of affiliation” from BCI despite repeated reminders.

Delhi University Law Faculty Dean Professor Ashwani Kumar Bansal had then written a letter to the BCI, expressing shock over the “drastic step”. Following unrest among the stakeholders, DU sent an application for affiliation and inspection a month later, under the Legal Education Rules to the Bar Council of India, providing a breather to the recent graduates of the Institute.

The University decided to shift its law faculty out of its 90 years old campus in January last year. The decision however, had drawn flak from the students who are unhappy over the size of the new facility. This was followed by the BCI allowing enrolment of students who had passed out till 2013-14 as advocates.

Subsequently, BCI’s Legal Education Committee has issued a fresh show cause notice to DU, to explain the “illegalities” in its functioning and has demanded an assurance in writing that it would comply with the prescribed recommendations within four weeks. Failure on the University’s part would entail disaffiliation for two academic years. You may read the LiveLaw story here.

More recently, Delhi University had been asked by the BCI to shut down its evening law courses, and reduce student intake by around 800 this year. The move had followed an adverse report filed by the BCI, which alleged that the University violated legal education rules by conducting classes after 7 pm.

It had advised that the students enrolled in such classes be provided special tutorials of 5.5 hours each. DU was further directed to deposit Rs. 2 lakhs each for a year per centre, in order to ensure that students who have already graduated from the evening classes didn’t encounter problems while enrolment as advocates. You may read the LiveLaw article here.