Bar Council India issues show-cause notice to Delhi University's Faculty of Law

NEW DELHI: In a fresh trouble for Delhi University's Faculty of Law, the Bar Council of India has issued it a show-cause notice to explain the "illegalities" in its functioning including more than permissible student strength, lack of infrastructure and faculty.

In an unprecedented move, BCI, the apex regulatory body for legal education and legal profession in India, had in 2014 decided to derecognise DU's law course after it failed to seek timely extension of the affiliation of its three centres, namely Campus Law Centre, Law Centre-I and Law Centre-II.

However, it was granted a provisional extension of affiliation for the 2014-15 session after DU had proposed to shift to a new building which it claimed "had adequate space" for the faculty to run properly.

The show-cause notice comes after a fresh inspection by a BCI panel, headed by former Chief Justice of Patna High Court L Narasimha Reddy, which has observed that besides fresh violations, the illegalities earlier highlighted remain unattended.

"The strength of 1,500 candidates in three centres of DU increased by 54 per cent though what was permissible under the act was only 27 per cent. Even this was done without approval of BCI," the BCI communication to the university said.

"Further, the record discloses that by and large the deficiencies pointed out by the earlier inspection committee remain unattended.

"The panel has stated that the Faculty of Law must arrange for 100 classrooms to accommodate the present strength. This apart from other requirements such as library, tutorial rooms, common rooms, moot courts etc. From this point of view, there is an acute shortage of infrastructure," it added.

Dean of Faculty of Law Ashwini Kumar Bansal was not available for comments on the issue.