Most Colleges Yet to Take Permission for Offering Law Courses: BCI to HC

Hyderabad: Senior counsel L. Ravichander, representing the Bar Council of India (BCI), on Monday informed the Telangana High Court that only 19 of the 32 colleges spread across the state had taken accreditation from the BCI to impart law courses, while other colleges have been declared as defaulters.

He also informed the court that the Nalsar University of Law and the Kakatiya University Law College, Warangal, were on the list of defaulters as they had not approached the BCI seeking a formal, independent verification that a programme or institution meets established quality standards and is competent to carry out such courses.

Senior counsel put these submissions before the division bench, comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J. Sreenivas Rao, which was dealing with a PIL filed by A. Bhaskar Reddy, an advocate from Gachibowli, seeking directions to the BCI to hold on time admissions to law courses in Telangana.

The petitioner also sought a direction to the state government, the BCI and the convener, TS-Lawcet, to strictly adhere to the academic calendar by completing the counselling and admissions to LLB, LLM and other law courses before July each year as per UGC norms.

Chief Justice Alok Aradhe, after hearing the contentions of Ravichander, recused from hearing the PIL, as he was also Chancellor of Nalsar University. Further, the bench directed the High Court Registry to list the case before the division bench headed by Justice Sujoy Paul.