The Bar Council of India (BCI) informed the Delhi High Court on Wednesday that a team of seven members has inspected the three centres of Delhi University’s law Faculty after the university applied for inspection for continued affiliation to the apex lawyers’ body.
BCI’s response came during the hearing of a PIl seeking setting aside of a notification barring fresh law graduates of DU from being enrolled as lawyers.
The BCI Secretary, who was present in person, informed a bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice PS Teji that the inspection report has been prepared and the same is “pending for consideration” before the legal education committee. He said that the findings of the committee will be submitted in first week of January 2015. The court has now fixed the matter for further hearing on January 18.
The inspection was required as BCI had on September 23 issued a letter to Bar Council of Delhi, other State bar councils and to the DU’s Vice-Chancellor that the students admitted from 2011-2012 and passing out in 2013-2014 would not be enrolled as advocates, as the university had not renewed or applied for inspection with BCI after 2010. BCI is the statutory body which regulates all law courses in the country. Vijay Kumar Chaurasia, Assistant Professor at law Centre-II in the Faculty of law, University of Delhi, moved the court on October 1, saying the law students, who took admission in 2011 and graduated in 2014 from DU’s law centres, have “wrongfully and illegally” been denied enrolment as advocates.