State bar council contests shutting of evening colleges

The BCI is the supreme body for law education constituted under the Advocates Act, 1961. Its approval is necessary for a law college to obtain the affiliation of a university.

The evening law colleges in the state will be closed in keeping with a resolution passed by the Bar Council of India at Gwalior in October 24 this year. The colleges have been given six months to make the shift to day courses.

The closure has been ordered due to the introduction of a new curriculum which, the council feels, can be properly implemented only in day colleges.

There are 42 law colleges in the state, nine of which are affiliated to the University of Mumbai. Of these, four are evening colleges, i.e., J C College of Law, Vile Parle, Dr Ambedkar College of Law, Wadala, Thane Law College and Ratnagiri Law College. Except the Government Law College at Churchgate, all others have part-time courses, i.e., not more than three-and-a-half hours per day as against the five hours for a full-time course.

However, law college principals maintained they have yet to receive any intimation about closure of evening colleges either from the BCI or the University of Mumbai, though there has been a meeting of principals in this regard at the university after the appearance of media reports.

According to Bhosale, who represented the state bar council at BCI’s October meeting, “the BCI has in June 1998 introduced a new curriculum which is more profession-oriented. The members feel the curriculum cannot be covered in evening colleges, whether part-time (3 hrs) or full-time (5 hrs).” However, he said the shutting of evening colleges will affect students from the working classes and agricultural families as they cannot afford to attend day colleges.

“At least full-time evening colleges should be allowed, but the council members argue that after working all day, it will be impossible for students to concentrate on studies,” he noted. He, however, maintained part-time colleges should not be allowed as they would be unable to do justice to the curriculum which has 28 subjects now as against the earlier 18. The new curriculum needs 20 hours of teaching per week and 10 hours per week for other activities like mock court and tutorials.

Most law colleges in India are run either in the morning or evening, that too in the premises of big institutions which run full-time arts, science and commerce colleges. Though BCI rules require law colleges to have their own buildings, hardly 20 to 25 per cent colleges have their own structure, Bhosale said. In Mumbai, for example, only two colleges have buildings of their own, the others are run in buildings either on rental basis or on the basis of an agreement between the institutions having buildings and law colleges or even on the premises of sister colleges.

In a letter dated November 30 and addressed to the BCI chairman and members, Bhosale has stated: “If we do not permit evening law colleges, all such colleges will have no alternative but to close down and thereby deprive legal education to their students. Six months time is too short to shift from evening to full-time day courses. Within a span of six months it is impossible for such colleges to construct their own buildings. Same is the case with morning law colleges.”

He has also suggested in the letter that colleges be permitted to have two shifts, morning and evening, of two-and-a-half-hours each to cover the new curriculum, including practical training where students are expected to attend courts and chambers of lawyers, etc.