BCI lifts Moratorium on Establishment of New Law Colleges
Ed. Note: BCI withdraws LPA against Punjab & Haryana High Court order declaring moratorium ultra vires of the Constitution of India. State Governments can now grant NOC’s for establishment of new law colleges.
Bar Council of India had imposed a moratorium for a period of three years on opening of New Law Colleges/Centers of Legal Education in the country through a resolution dated August 11, 2019. This moratorium was challenged in the High Court of Punjab & Haryana at Chandigarh in the case of Chandigarh Educational Society vs Bar Council of India and others, CWP No. 7441 of 2020 (O&M). On December 04, 2021, the High Court had set aside the Moratorium being violative of Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India.
Earlier, the BCI had filed a Letter Patent Appeal (LPA) against the order of the Punjab & Haryana High Court. However, in a resolution dated June 16, 2021, the BCI has now decided to file an application for withdrawal of the LPA. As a result, the moratorium stands cancelled.
The Bar Council of India had imposed the moratorium in order to put a check on the wide scale establishment of the Law colleges/Centers of legal education in the country in order to improve the standards of providing legal education by Law Colleges/Centers of Legal Education.
Lifting the moratorium, BCI has now decided to appoint a Committee to draft Rules for moratorium which can be placed before the Legal Education Committee which has a statutory sanction under section 10 (2) (b) of the Advocates Act. Until then, the BCI has resolved to conduct surprise visits of Law Colleges/Centers of Legal Education subject to a possibility given the educational institutions being closed due to pandemic.
Reaffirming its mandate of recognising Law Colleges/Centers of Legal Education and not pushing for a moratorium any further, the BCI has urged the State Governments to conduct a strict scrutiny before granting ‘No Objection Certificates (NOCs)’ for establishment of new Law Collges/Centers of Legal Education.