Bombay HC Seeks Clarity from State Govt. Regarding BCI’s Power to Debar Law Colleges

The High Court of Bombay has sought clarity from the state government of Maharashtra regarding Bar Council of India’s power to debar the law colleges, which do not comply with norms of the council. The HC wants to know whether BCI has such power to debar law colleges. A division bench comprising of Manjula Chellur, Chief Justice and Justice S. Kulkarni gave directions to the state government to file the response on or before April 13, 2017.

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The court was hearing a petition filed by seven LLB students who challenged the BCI’s decision to debar around 60 law colleges across the state. The petitioners also claimed that the decision was taken by BCI in the early months of 2017 lead to stall the admission process in these colleges for the new academic session.

The petitioners also claimed that law colleges deposit a sum of Rs. 1,50,000 to BCI every year and invite the council to inspect the law colleges. However, BCI never carried out an inspection and debarred 64 colleges from carrying out the admission process. BCI claimed that these colleges do not have the requisite infrastructure, the mandatory percentage of teaching staff and qualified teachers. The petitioners demanded that BCI should withdraw the debar ruling on these 64 law colleges.

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Therefore, the apex court of the state sought a response from the state government on the powers of BCI. The court gave a week's time to state government as the admission process is being delayed in these colleges. On the other hand, there is a lot of uncertainty regarding the admissions process.