legal education

Mint exclusive: The Bar Council of India has retained the power to recognize law schools across India, as it emerged from a meeting with the ministry of human resource development (HRD) on Tuesday.

Exclusive: Nalsar Hyderabad registrar Dr Madabhushi Sridhar Acharyulu will be replaced as registrar by Nalsar’s Prof KVS Sarma, Sridhar was told by the college’s vice chancellor’s (VC) office today. The college’s new VC is yet to take up the reins.

Breaking: Around 63 per cent passed the 8 January 2012 All India Bar Exam (AIBE) out of almost than 25,000 graduates who enrolled, said the Bar Council of India (BCI) today.

Justice KT Thomas’ 2009 review of NLSIU Bangalore focused on NLSIU students’ vision and academic issues but stopped short of looking deeper into the books of accounts or administration, unlike the hard-hitting Nalsar Hyderabad judicial inquiry from 2011.

Exclusive: Nalsar Hyderabad chancellor and Andhra Pradesh Chief Justice Madan B Lokur is seeking nominations to find Nalsar’s next vice chancellor (VC), as current VC Veer Singh has resigned the institution to join as a director of the Chandigarh Judicial Academy, according to several sources.

Results for the All India Bar Exam (AIBE) would be out within a week, said Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Ashok Parija, after the Supreme Court today granted interim relief over the Calcutta High Court’s stay of the exam results.

Legally India has today filed right to information (RTI) requests with India’s seven oldest national law schools, seeking full financial accounts, council meeting minutes and other information.

Until last Wednesday, an explosive 161-page document prepared by four judges was gathering dust in the office of Nalsar Hyderabad vice chancellor (VC) Veer Singh for nearly four months. Few, if any, had read it and most faculty and students claimed they were unaware even of its existence or any details.

The story of that report is Nalsar’s alone. But this is also a story of academic power struggles, law school management and students caught in between, that will have near-universal parallels in many Indian law schools.

The college’s public information officers supplied Legally India with a full copy of the 161-page report today via email.

Exclusive: Nalsar Hyderabad yesterday responded to Legally India’s Right to Information (RTI) request of 12 January, disclosing part of the highly critical September 2011 report of the three-judge committee headed by Justice Syed Shah Mohammed Quadri investigating the college.

Nalsar Hyderabad vice chancellor Veer Singh has been accused of “favouritism, abuse of authority, gross academic indiscipline and financial irregularities”, by Supreme Court and High Court judges in a report unearthed by state auditors, a copy of which Legally India has unsuccessfully tried to obtain for more than two weeks.

Exclusive: The Bar Council of India (BCI) has been restrained from publishing the results to the third All India Bar Exam (AIBE) due today by the still effective Calcutta High Court’s stay.

Aunty and Uncle are taking a break this week, but Legally India editor Kian Ganz shares his opinion in today’s Mint on whether there is any point for an Indian lawyer to do an LLM abroad. Also covered is Gap Yah, pathology and how a Harvard LLM can make you more attractive to the opposite sex.

Click through to read the rest.

Exclusive: A few years ago, Indian lawyers who took a top LLM in the US were inundated with job offers from prestigious US and international law firms. Many accepted. But in 2011 only five out of 60 students got such a ticket. Have $70,000 US LLMs just become a way for colleges to cash in on Indian students? Find out why the Brazilians seem to fare better than the Indians.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) will engage a public relations (PR) consultancy and passed a resolution to agitate against the Human Resource Development ministry’s move to take away legal education, which the BCI said was “stealthily trying invite foreign firms”.

Graduates sitting for the 2012 All India Bar Exam (AIBE) were greeted on Sunday with a tough question paper, as the Bar Council of India (BCI) has said it would slowly increase the standard.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has extended the deadline to register for the third All India Bar Exam (AIBE) from 7 to 15 December, despite claiming a “substantial number of applications”.

Graduates who passed the July 2011 All India Bar Exam (AIBE) can collect their practising certificates, which now includes photographs, from state bar council offices from 25 October, said the Bar Council of India (BCI) in a press release yesterday.

The All India Bar Exam (AIBE) will be held on 8 January 2012, after the Bar Council of India (BCI) had originally scheduled the exam for December 2011 in its 4 September 2011 resolution.

Exclusive: The Bar Council of India has scheduled the next All India Bar Exam (AIBE) for December 2011 but acknowledging “practical difficulties” will allow graduates to practice in courts if they give an affidavit to pass the AIBE in December.