Chennai: Pointing out that persons with criminal background are entering into legal profession by purchasing law degrees from letter pad colleges from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, Madras high court has asked the Bar Council of India on what basis it had granted approval for many colleges and what steps are being taken to enhance the standard of legal education and dignity of legal profession.
Passing interim orders on a batch of petitions from Annai Medical College and Hospital students, the judge also asked BCI to answer another query why not the BCI prescribe a minimum of 75 per cent marks in +2 for the students to get admission in law colleges or a minimum qualifying mark in CLAT examination.
The judge said the Bar council has been giving approval without even ascertaining whether those colleges were having proper infrastructure or not. This court on an earlier occasion had dealt with similar issue and to the knowledge of this court, more than 200 law colleges were functioning in Andhra Pradesh and about 125 law colleges in Karnataka.
“This court is unable to understand as to why in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka there is a need for so many colleges. In fact, many persons without even attending the colleges are able to get law degree in absentia and some of them are using those degrees only as a shield to hide their criminal activities and many incidents have occurred in Tamil Nadu in which many persons with bogus degrees are accused of so many offences and even found to be murdered. Thus, time has come for the BCI to make the biometric attendance system mandatory in the law colleges and also create a centralized portal containing the details of the teaching staff available in the colleges throughout India,” the judge added.
The judge said in the School of Excellence in law-The Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University, even students who were able to secure more than 80 per cent marks were finding it difficult to get admission in law courses. Similar was the situation in other colleges in Tamil Nadu.
