PU evening law course to shut from next session

Aarti Kapur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 10

The almost three-decade-old evening course of the Department of Laws, Panjab University, which is popular not only among the students but also among the civil servants of the region, will be shut from the next academic session 2017-18.

Reason: the Bar council of India (BCI), in a communication to the dean of the Department of Laws on November 30, had asked for their explanation as to how they were running this course and asked them to discontinue it as it was against the legal education rules, 2008, of the BCI.

Chairman, PU Department of Laws, Prof Vijay Nagpal confirmed that from the next academic session, the department would not be able to continue the evening classes. There would be two shifts for the course—8 am to 1:30 pm and 1:30 pm to 7 pm— to meet the orders of the BCI.

In a two-page letter, the council addressed the dean of the Department of Laws that in the meeting of the legal education committee held on July 30 this year, the issue of the evening law classes run by PU was tabled. The committee recommended that PU was conducting evening law classes for persons in service.

The communication stated that as per para-5 of schedule III of legal education rules 2008, general timing for the courses in academic building was between 8 am to 7 pm in an institution, which was not fully residential. However, the library may remain open till 10 pm. In the PU, the evening classes are from 5:30 pm to 9:15 pm in the Department of Laws.

The BCI also mentioned that the classes under the said rule 2 (XXIII) regular course of study means that the course should runs at least five hours a day, continuously with an additional half an hour break every day and running not less than 30 hours of working schedule per week.

Similarly, now an application has been moved by the dean/ principal from the Kurukshetra University for approval of the Bar Council of India, after inspection granting provisional affiliation to start a three-year LLB course in the evening from the academic session 2016-17. The issues in both these cases are whether any evening classes can be undertaken by any university as per the legal education rules, 2008. So far, as per the record of the BCI, PU is running evening classes for both three-year and five-year integrated course and has never sought any permission from the BCI for running the evening classes.

Hence, no person would be treated to have passed a course of law whether evening or day without the approval of the BCI as it would be a violation of rule 14 and the person passing would not have the right to practice law.

In the communication, it was stated that it was a clear violation of rules. Hence, the question of any evening classes, if they want students passing it or right to practise, would not be entitled. Referring to the new rules, legal education rules, 2008, the restriction has been made keeping in mind the upgrade of standards, if legal education by fixing hours of study each day and period during which it can be run.

If any university wants service classes to be educated in law, they can have the courses with a specific mention that they will not have the right to practise but can obtain a diploma in law.