SC notice to Centre, BCI on allowing IIT to start LL.B course

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to the Centre and the Bar Council of India (BCI) on a petition challenging grant of sanction to an IIT to start a LL.B course.

The Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan sought responses from the BCI, the governing body of legal education in the country, IIT, Kharagpur, and the Centre.

The petition filed by M Chandrashekhar, an advocate, alleged the BCI, by allowing the IIT to start the LL.B course in Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), would change the nature of the course as only engineering graduates would be able to take the admission.

"The admission to a three-year L.LB course is open to graduates of all disciplines, without any exception, in various Law Colleges throughout the country," it said.

The petition said such sanctions were violative of the fundamental rights enshrined under the Constitution as there cannot be specialised course at the entry level as such things are not allowed in various like courses such as MBBS.

The petition sought a direction to BCI not to permit the IIT to run the specialised LL.B course.