Mumbai: State govt has directed all public universities to carry out an immediate and in-depth physical inspection of every law college affiliated to them and submit a detailed report to Bar Council of India (BCI) within six weeks. The state’s directive follows BCI’s order which took serious cognisance of Supreme Court’s oral observations while hearing a petition regarding the deteriorating quality of legal education in the country. The apex court observed that the legal education centres were operating with inadequate facilities and without meeting the prescribed standards.In a letter to the universities, BCI mentioned that the SC observations “underscore the immediate need for every authority in the statutory and academic chain to discharge its own continuing responsibility with complete seriousness”. Mentioning that the universities’ responsibilities do not end with the initial grant of affiliation and that they should ensure that colleges do not merely run on the strength of paper compliance, it has sought a report on every affiliated college within six weeks.Universities have been directed to constitute one or more competent inspection teams to carry out immediate physical inspection of law colleges. The teams have been tasked with verifying the availability of faculty members, adequate classrooms, libraries, reading rooms, journals, law reports, electronic databases, land and building infrastructure, fire and safety compliance, sanitation facilities, legal aid clinics, and other essential requirements. They have also been instructed to notify BCI of any colleges found to have made false declarations, fabricated faculty records, submitted misleading photographs, shifted their premises without approval, or admitted students in excess of the permitted intake.BCI has directed the universities to submit a consolidated report by classifying institutions as fully compliant, deficient but capable of immediate correction without affecting academic standards and seriously deficient requiring suspension, non-renewal or withdrawal of affiliation.Prior to this, state govt and Mumbai University had initiated separate action against colleges that failed to comply with the prescribed norms. While the state took action against 103 colleges that did not have BCI recognition, the university reduced the intake capacity of 50 colleges by up to 50% and imposed fines of up to Rs 10 lakh for failing to appoint approved teachers.
