Bar Council’s halt on new law colleges challenged in SC

A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the Bar Council of India’s decision to impose a three-year moratorium on opening new law colleges in India.

A Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta on Friday asked the BCI to respond to the petition filed by advocate Jatin Sharma in four weeks.

The BCI had brought in the impugned rules, saying the move was aimed at curbing the unchecked mushrooming of substandard institutions and safeguarding the integrity of legal education. However, the council might make exceptions for national law universities proposed by a state.

Sharma challenged the Rules of Legal Education, Moratorium (Three-Year Moratorium), with respect to the Centres of Legal Education, 2025, on the ground that the blanket moratorium is arbitrary, disproportionate and in violation of Articles 14, 19(1)(g) and 21.

He contended that the decision would deprive deserving aspirants of the access to legal education and penalise institutions that otherwise fulfil the criteria for starting law courses.