The human resource development ministry today agreed to some key demands of the Bar Council of India, defusing the war over regulating legal education, though it didn’t concede the turf entirely.
“The ministry has agreed to accept the BCI’s demand that it should regulate all aspects of the profession of law, including its foundation through legal education,” council chairman Ashok Parija told The Telegraph after a meeting with HRD minister Kapil Sibal.
The balancing act came in the face of protests against the proposed Higher Education and Research (HER) Act, which seeks to allow universities to frame law courses that would not lead to professional practice.
The HER bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha in the winter session, seeks to set up a National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER), an overarching body to regulate all types of education except health and agriculture.
However, it has a provision that legal education leading to practice in courts will be regulated by the BCI.
Although the bill makes a distinction between legal education, involving teaching and research, and professional pursuit, the BCI said it limited their mandate. The council wanted the bill to mention that the BCI would regulate all aspects of legal education.
“Practice of the profession not only refers to practice in court. It also includes advocacy or drafting any legal document in any organisation. So today’s meeting has been fruitful. We have still some concerns which we hope will be sorted out,” Parija said.
But the ministry hasn’t given up the turf entirely. “Even if the BCI controls all aspects of the profession of law, the proposed NCHER can still design special courses under which students will be trained in more than one discipline, including law,” a source said.