New Delhi: The Bar Council of India (BCI) has opposed the government’s move to bring law education under the proposed Higher Education Commission of India (HECI), which will be a single regulator for higher studies.
The Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) had last year announced its decision to replace the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) with the HECI. A bill in this regard is likely to be introduced in the winter session of Parliament this year.
The HECI will regulate most forms of technical education, including engineering, management, pharmacy and architecture, except for medical education which is likely to remain under the jurisdiction of the Medical Council of India (MCI), highly placed sources in the HRD ministry confirmed to ThePrint.
So far, higher education was regulated by the UGC and technical subjects such as engineering, management and pharmacy were managed by the AICTE. Legal education, meanwhile, was being monitored by the BCI. With HECI, it has been proposed that even legal studies will be overseen by the single regulator.
Also read: Delhi Bar Council debars 4,778 lawyers then rolls back order, BCI blames ‘human error’
‘Won’t tolerate outsider influence’
BCI has argued that the new proposed bill for HECI violates Advocates Act, 1961 which empowers the council to promote legal education and lay down its standards.
“No other commission or body could be more competent or efficient for legal education than the Legal Education Committee (LEC) of Bar Council of India. Moreover, we cannot tolerate the interference of any outsider in the matter of regulations of legal education,” read a statement by BCI Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra.
The LEC lays down the norms and standards of law education in the country. It is headed by a former judge of the Supreme Court and its co-chairpersons are two sitting chief justices of high courts. Apart from that, the committee also has other members including vice-chancellors of law universities.
The HRD ministry, meanwhile, has said it wants to bring law education under HECI’s ambit in order to ‘clean up’ the system. “A lot of corruption goes on in various councils that have the task of regulating and granting accreditation to institutions, which is why we want to merge all the councils into one, including legal,” said a senior official, who did not wish to be named.
The government is likely to place the draft bill of HECI for Cabinet approval later this month. Once it is approved, the bill will pave way for authorities to create a single higher education regulator.
According to senior government officials, the bill proposes that HECI will only act as a body for regulating the quality of higher education and not deal with the funding part. Both the UGC and the AICTE had so far been involved in funding too.
Also read: High fees, ‘sexism’ & poor infra has angry national law students erupting in protest
Bar Councils and their education committees being absolutely corrupt is widespread knowledge. I have 3 maternal uncles who have done law degree course via correspondence and wrote the exams after bribing the invigilators for copying. 2 of them do not practise as lawyers but use the degree to just threaten litigation of clients whom they serve in their businesses.
One of them even tried it on me.
Many lawyers get position like SC lawyers not on the basis of merit or experience [unlike other fields like medicine] or reputation of training institutes but on the basis of networking, pedigree, nepotism and corruption.
The legal profession is the most unaccountable professional stream in India after the judiciary and is immediately followed by Chartered Accountants. If you are cheated by a lawyer, there is no redressal available. All these 3 professional streams have been steeped in corruption but in 70 years of independence, none of them have been caught and punished until the BJP government started acting against them.
The Government should focus on revamping and upgrading existing Educational Assets – Universities, Colleges, Technical Institutes, etc., under its administrative and pedagogical control to make them world class before attempting to annex other educational domains such as medicine and law. Better use of its resources be made or else we will have fictional entities like Jio University -which does not even exist but is ‘Institute of Eminence’ !!?? And a 1000 crores were given to it!! No one knows what happened to that money. HRD Ministry-Get your priorities right and do good in them before wanting more.
Since the ATS, recruiters have leveraged technology to make their jobs easier, faster, and better. Today, the dominant theme in HR technology is AI for recruiting. If you want an intelligent system which gives you accurate insights on a candidate’s capability, try http://www.peoplehum.com/#bl
Govt.move is necessary to clean to clean education system including legal education . Supreme court coment in a case” later head law college “is very much clear about legal education.we welcome govt.move.
Resisting “outside interference” usually means they have something to hide. In any case, the people’s will is supreme. If the people of this country want change in how education is standardized, it shall happen, notwithstanding the protestations of BCI trying to protect its fiefdom.
There is no fiefdoms etc. Just look at the horrid & dilapidated infrastructure of existing universities & colleges which are crying for attention. None if the Universities under the HRD Ministry are in the top 100 in Asia, let alone the world.
BCI is doing a fine job in maintaining the standard of education and so far, not erred as yet. Don’t want the same pathetic attitude of the HRD Ministry of which examples are everywhere. Central Education budget has been slashed by almost 60% and you say you welcome the move!!?? This type of paralytic slave response is the reason the HRD Min. is behaving like it owns everything. Open your eyes Sir, and then pen your comments.
Thanks.