Mahatma Gandhi University's criminology course gets Bar Council's nod

KOCHI: The knot surrounding the five-year BA-LLB Criminology students of MG University has been  untied by the university authorities in the talks held with the Bar Council of India (BCI) authorities in New Delhi. Accordingly,  the BCI has allowed the enrolment of 80 students of the first batch who are clearing their final year this year. MGU Vice-Chancellor Dr Babu Sebastian, who held the talks with the BCI authorities,  said that the course will be renamed as BA-LLB Honours.

“The course will have a new syllabus from 2016 onwards. Those students in the 2012-15 period will have to write two additional papers from political science, economics or sociology, as per the BCI decision,” Dr Babu Sebastian said. He also said that the BCI had  asked the varsity to pay a penalty of Rs 10 lakh for five years with Rs 2 lakh for each year for conducting the course without BCI approval.

“The next university syndicate meeting will take a decision in this regard,” he added. “Our foremost concern was the future of the students and everything else was secondary. The BCI had to understand the autonomous character of the university in conducting courses which finally prompted them to come to a truce,” said the VC.

The second batch of the course too had 80 students and in the first and second year,  the course was conducted at Ernakulam Government Law College only. However, from 2013 onwards,  the course was introduced in four self-financing colleges as well with 60 students in each batch. These are Al-Azhar Law College, Muvattupuzha, CSI Law College, Kanakkari, Bharatha Matha Law College, Ernakulam and SN Law College, Poothotta.