Delhi High Court Directs BCI To Constitute Special Teams For Conducting Surprise Visits To Law Colleges, Shut Those Lacking Minimum Infra

The Delhi High Court on Friday directed the Bar Council of India (BCI) to constitute special expert teams to conduct surprise visits of law colleges that lack minimum infrastructure and adequate facilities.

Justice Chandra Dhari Singh added that the inspection reports of the law colleges shall be uploaded on its website, within one month of such inspection.

"If any colleges upon such inspection are found to be lacking minimum infrastructural facilities, then the BCI must take immediate steps to close such colleges. This is a much-needed therapy that ought to be introduced to cure the maladies that legal education is suffering from," the Court added.

The observations were made while the Court expressed concern over the condition of legal education including the status of infrastructure.

"There are law colleges where you may not have sufficient faculty, no classrooms, no library, etc. It is unfortunate that this Court is being constrained to remark that there are law colleges where you have to just go and pay the fees, the rest is taken care off. It is surprising to state that how can a legal profession or how can we as stakeholders of legal education tolerate this kind of situation. It is a great responsibility cast upon the Bar Council of India to shut down such institutions," the Court said.

The Court thus observed that it is high time that all the stakeholders led by the BCI, including Senior Advocates, Academicians and even former Judges of Supreme Court or High Courts may be requested to take upon themselves the task of reforming the status of Legal Education in India.

The Court was dealing with a bunch of pleas seeking a direction to the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University to allocate 110 seats to the Ideal Institute of Management & Technology, one of its affiliated colleges, in BA LLB Five Years' Integrated Course for Academic Sessions 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23.

It was argued on behalf of the institute that it was granted approval of affiliation by the Bar Council of India for 120 seats since academic session 2014-15. It was added that for the academic session 2022-23, the institute was granted approval by the BCI for 120 seats vide its approval dated July 15, 2022.

As per the BCI, an academic building of a Centre of Legal Education should have separate classrooms of 60 students for each section, rooms for tutorial work, moot court room, common room for male and female students and adequate library or reading space.

While the University and Directorate of Higher Education of Delhi Government had taken a stand that the institute in question was not entitled to the strength of 110 students on account of basement, it was the institute's case that the space available with it was sufficient for 100 students.

It was also argued by institute that the space available with it (excluding basement) was much more than the 85 seats as being granted and therefore, the denial of commensurate seats was absolutely illegal, arbitrary and whimsical.

On the other hand, the University had argued that the institute did not have adequate space to accommodate 110 students, as per the approved or sanctioned building plan of the premises as sanctioned by the DDA, the institute can have the highest intake of 85 seats.

The Court said that commercialisation of education is another bane that the sector in India is suffering from and that one such manifestation of profiteering in legal profession is in the form of enrolling additional students in each coming batch without upgrading the existing infrastructure.

"Therefore, any attempts at commercialisation of education especially that of legal education while imperilling the qualitative imparting of education must be derided and frowned upon," the Court said.

The Court was of the view that the institute had failed to show that it had necessary clearance from the statutory bodies for the usage as being sought for.

"The fact that the request of the Revised Building Plan is still pending with the concerned authority does not act to the advantage of the petitioner. Until and unless the sanction is granted for the desired purpose, the petitioner is not allowed to use the same for any other purpose except car parking," the Court said.

Observing that the classes or any educational activity cannot be allowed to function in basement which can only be used for parking purposes, the court said that the Institute lacked the requisite FAR for an additional intake of 25 students in the said Course.

While dismissing the petitions, the Court said:

"However, it is made clear that this Court is conscious of the fact that vide the interim orders passed by this Court in the past, the students in addition to the sanctioned capacity were admitted in the previous academic sessions. Therefore, notwithstanding the question of legality of the additional seats as being claimed by the Petitioner Institute for previous academic sessions, this Court, in the best interest of the students already admitted and other stakeholders, does not intend to interfere with their admission."

Accordingly, the Court directed GGSIPU and Delhi Government's Directorate of Higher Education to maintain status quo regarding the already admitted students in the institute in previous academic session in compliance with the past judicial orders.

"No such benefit shall be allowed for the Academic Session 2022-23, and only admission to 85 Seats already allotted by the Respondent University shall be done by the petitioner institute in its BA LLB Course," the Court added.

Case Title: NEW MILLENNIUM EDUCATION SOCIETY & ANR v. GURU GOBIND SINGH INDRAPRASTHA UNIVERSITY & ANR

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Del) 880

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