SC issues notice to BCI on pleas against background checks, CCTVs at law colleges
The Supreme Court has issued notice to the Bar Council of India (BCI) on petitions challenging its circulars introducing mandatory criminal background checks for law students, along with declarations on simultaneous academic pursuits, employment status and attendance compliance.
Acting on petitions filed by Prakruthi Jain, final-year law student of NALSAR University of Law at Hyderabad and Keyur Akkiraju, a final year law student at Symbiosis Law School, a Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta on Friday asked the BCI to spell out its stand on the issue in six weeks.
The BCI had in September last year issued a notification mandating strict measures for universities, law colleges and Centres of Legal Education across India directing them to immediately comply with these requirements.
The notification issued by the BCI – which regulates legal education and legal profession in India -- introduced a system for conducting criminal background checks on law students and required them to declare that they were not pursuing simultaneous academic courses, besides their employment status and attendance compliance.
“The Impugned circulars issued by the Respondent Bar Council of India, under the garb of upholding the ethical standards of the legal profession, have been passed without jurisdiction and seek to infringe upon the right to freedom of speech and expression, right to freedom of profession, and right to privacy guaranteed under the Constitution of India,” the petitioners submitted.
Contending that the BCI’s directives were beyond the provisions of the Advocates Act of 1961 and the rules made under the Act, the petitioners said the circulars exceeded the regulatory authority of the BCI.
The petitioners also flagged the chilling effect of surveillance on academic freedom and freedom of speech, particularly on academic campuses, saying mandatory installation of CCTV cameras in classrooms would stifle open discussions.
“The mandate to install CCTV cameras in classrooms and other key areas of the institution and preserve these recordings for a period of one year compels students and lecturers to engage in self-censorship in face of uncertain consequences… there are no adequate safeguards to ensure that the CCTV recordings will not be used as a tool to whittle freedom of speech in the form of prosecutions, sanctions, and such other measures,” the petitioners submitted.
