ABVP seeks HRD intervention in evening law classes

New Delhi, Aug 11 (PTI) Eyeing the upcoming student unionelections, ABVP led DUSU today submitted a memorandum to HRDministry seeking intervention in scrapping of evening classesfor law courses by the Bar Council of India. "This is a critical issue and has been there for manyyears now. The prospectus mentioned the faculty has a total of2400 seats following which the student came forward forenrollment. "But after the BCI’s recommendations the seats have beencut to half the number…we spoke to BCI and it said that ifthe university gives an undertaking to upgrade theinfrastructure in a year, it will reconsider therecommendations," DUSU president Satender Awana said during apress conference. He said that the union has submitted a memorandum to HRDministry and Vice Chancellor Yogesh Tyagi in this regard. The issue is being raised by all student groups active oncampus including ABVP, AISA and NSUI, especially at a timewhen union elections are due next month. The BCI has asked DU to shutdown colleges offering lawcourses in the evening shifts. The recommendation has been made after a committee ofBCI, the apex regulatory body for legal education and legalprofession in the country, submitted an adverse report aboutinfrastructure and quality of education imparted at thecentres of DU’s law faculty. Around 800 students are currently enrolled in the DUevening colleges offering law. In an unprecedented move, BCI had in 2014 decided toderecognize DU’s law course after it failed to seek timelyextension of the affiliation of its three centres, namelyCampus Law Centre, Law Centre-I and Law Centre-II. It was granted a provisional extension of affiliation forthe 2014-15 session after DU had proposed to shift to a newbuilding which it claimed "had adequate space" for the facultyto run properly. However, after a fresh inspection by a BCI panel, thecouncil had noted that besides fresh violations, theillegalities earlier highlighted remain unattended. Following this, the BCI issued it a show-cause notice toexplain the "illegalities" in its functioning including morethan permissible student strength, lack of infrastructure andfaculty. The council had in January communicated to the universityto shutdown colleges offering law courses in evening shifts,saying such programmes do not ensure proper quality of legaleducation. PTI GJSRG