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BCI faces legal action over law syllabus loopholes, Ex-DRDO scientist to PIL

Shaking BCI into action
Shaking BCI into action

The Bar Council of India (BCI), the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa (BCMG), and the union law ministry were yesterday served with a legal notice asking that the bar council be suspended for failing in their duty to update a “defective” law syllabus in law schools across the country, the Pune Mirror reported.

Former Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) scientist KC Jaisinghani served the notice, and is planning to file a public interest litigation in the Bombay High Court if no action is taken within 60 days.

A BCI spokesperson declined to confirm to Legally India if the notice had been received by the regulator and whether it planned to take any action with regard to the law syllabus, saying that it was an “internal matter”.

Jaisinghani had written to the prime minister and the HRD minister on 30 January 2012 that the syllabus does not cover all Indian laws making judges and lawyers under-qualified. For example, municipal laws are not included in the BCI-prescribed curriculum. He said that his representation was forwarded to the BCI which failed to take any action.

He holds that teaching all Indian laws is mandatory under Section 57(1) of the Evidence Act, and had authored a book – Corruption Formula, last year, discussing the BCI prescribed syllabus’ “loopholes”, according to the Times of India.

BCMG member and senior advocate Harshad Nimbalkar said:

Some subjects are not covered in the BCI syllabus, but to fill this lacuna, BCI has been conducting an All India Bar Exam (AIBE) for the last three years, mandatory for all students completing a fiveyear law degree. Law is a vast topic, only experience brings perfection.

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