legal education
This controversy-packed week all of India lived in fear of Friday, awaiting the verdict in the 60-year-old Ayodhya land title dispute.
Two Andra Pradesh (AP) law colleges, whose accreditation was withdrawn by the Bar Council of India (BCI) as part of its drastic pruning of law schools, have filed writ petitions in Hyderabad High Court challenging the BCI’s decision.
The Bar Council of India (BCI) has today extended the deadline to apply for the all-India bar exam from end of September to 31 October 2010 to accommodate students facing delays in enrolment.
Students would get to complete law degrees they enrolled in at derecognised law colleges or transfer to other institutes, promised the Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Gopal Subramanium.
The Bar Council of India (BCI) has rejected applications to renew the licences of approximately 50 law colleges at its meetings over the past weeks, as part of chairman Gopal Subramanium’s stated aim to reduce the total number from more than 900 to less than 200.
Procedural delays were set to derail the discussions on the merits in the All India bar examination court challenges, as the Supreme Court has adjourned the hearing in the transfer petition to 20 October after ordering the issue of fresh notices to the respondents and the shifting of the case to the Delhi High Court was not mentioned.
The Bar Council of India (BCI) has published the preparation materials and model questions and answers for the new all India bar exam that is proposed to take place on 5 December 2010.
he Bar Council of India's (BCI) ambitious weekend meeting decided to introduce draft lawyers' ethics guidelines in two days and how to begin decreasing the number of law colleges in India. But due to time constraints the body had to postpone its decision on the entry of foreign law firms in respect of the Chennai writ petition, as well as Trilegal's queries about converting to a limited liability partnership (LLP).
Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Gopal Subramanium said that the BCI would crack down on any recently enrolled lawyers who were practising law without having passed the proposed bar exam and that law colleges whose graduating law students did not take the bar exam could be derecognised.
The bar council of Maharashtra and Goa said today that it would oppose the proposed all India bar exam after a decision reached by 11 chairmen of different state bar councils on 31 July, although the body admitted that unless the Bar Council of India (BCI) or a court intervened the exam would go ahead.
The Supreme Court today outright dismissed one public interest litigation (PIL) against the bar exam filed by a Delhi University law graduate and issued directions to combine the pending national high court writ petitions against the bar exam for hearing before the Delhi High Court, as Friday's Bonnie FOI case hearing was adjourned.
Rodney Ryder has merged his practice with young start-up law firm ANM Global, spinning off his Scriboard company into a separate entity for legal education.
It appears there is just no winning in India for foreign law firms.
As though the opposition to them practising law here is not enough, the Indian Revenue Services (IRS) too are making their life hard.
The Bar Council of India (BCI) has responded to common queries and concerns about the bar exam, explaining that the BCI is discussing options to ameliorate lot of 2010 batch graduates, that legal challenges will cause no shift in timetable, and that the Rs 1,300 test fee is reasonable, answering questions relating to Rainmaker's appointment to assist in the exam.
A group of law graduates from Delhi University have invoked the Supreme Court’s writ jurisdiction under Article 32 of the Indian Constitution as two students of the NUALS Kochi have filed yet another petition before the Kerala High Court against the all India Bar Examinations.
A High Court bench in Maharashtra has ordered the petitioner students of Manikchand Pahade Law College to join the Bar Council of India vs Bonnie FOI Law College and Ors proceedings to set aside their grievances against the all india bar examin while it is understood that the BCI has written to the CJI to seek transfer of such pending petition to the Supreme Court (SC).
"I don't think students are against the exam, only against the waiting period," says solicitor general and Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Gopal Subramanium, who is the architect of the proposed all India bar exam. The exam remains controversial because this year's final year students would not be able to practice law until 2011. Legally India asks the BCI chief some of the questions that have preoccupied students.
Allen & Overy's (A&O) best friend Trilegal's international finance course at NLSIU Bangalore has this year also invited 40 students from other national law schools and will be held at Nalsar Hyderabad next year, being set to rotate between law schools year-by-year.