Bar Council Of India Issues Directives For Legal Educational Institutions
The Bar Council of India (BCI) has issued new regulatory measures for the Centres of Legal Education (CLE) including universities and law colleges to ensure integrity and transparency in the legal profession. According to the BCI’s notice, the objective of these directives is to maintain student’s honesty and accountability.
These directives include universities and law colleges to implement certain measures including checking up on criminal backgrounds, attaining declarations regarding academic pursuits, employment status, and compliance with the attendance requirements.
The BCI mandates students to disclose any involvement in criminal activities, including FIRs, convictions, or acquittals, before obtaining their final marksheets and degrees. The aim is to ensure that people who are entering into the legal profession are clean without any criminal record. Failure to disclose this information may lead to disciplinary actions including withholding the degrees, the notice said.
Also, under Chapter II, Rule 6 of the Rules of Legal Education (2008), law students are prohibited to enroll in more than one regular degree programs at the same time. BCI has said that students must declare that they are not enrolled in any other regular academic degree program while pursuing their LL.B. degree.
The BCI notice also ask students to declare that they have not engaged in any employment, service or vocation while pursuing their law degree, or obtain a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from their employer. Employment cases must be reported to the BCI for approval.
Also the Law Education Institutes must ensure the attendance requirement of students in Rule 12 of the BCI Rules of Legal Education. BCI has instructed all CLEs to install biometric attendance systems and CCTV cameras in classrooms.
BCI has emphasised all Centres of Legal Educations to strictly and immediatly follow the regulations. Failure to enforce may lead to strict disciplinary actions.
