Bar Council of India’s meeting on the provision of mandatory test for advocates for enrollment and to start practice in the court and entry on foreign lawyers remained inconclusive as the members could not reach to final conclusion despite long debate last evening.

There are over 9.5 lakh lawyers enrolled with Bar Councils at present and several thousand fresh law graduates are in the queue of enrollment to start their practice. According to sources the some of the members had the view that there should be no such provision of mandatory test, as suggested by the government. They had the view that the if the candidate is not competent he will be automatically shunted during his professional career. While a section of the BCI’s members had different view and they wanted to go ahead with the government’s plan, said sources. However, the decision will be taken in this regard after next meeting, they said.

After the government announcement about its intention for the mandatory qualifying test to get membership of the Bar Council and start practice in the court, debate has started about the requirement of such announcement. On the other hand Bar Council of India is going to convene the meeting this week in this regard.

“The Bar Council of India will look into the issue very soon. We are going to convene a meeting in this regard on 20th this month”, BCI’s Chairman and senior advocate Suraj Narain Prasad Sinha told fachcha.com over phone. It is yet to see what has been proposed by the government in this regard, he said. According to him the agenda of the meeting will be – proposal of mandatory qualifying test to get membership of Bar Council and entry of foreign lawyers in India.

Other members and students have different views in this regard but they say that there should be some mechanism to stop LL.B. shops. The BCI will look into it but there is need of quality legal education in the country, says Ram Avtar Gupta, Vice-Chairman of Executive Committee, BCI.

Ayaz Ahmed, a first year LL.M. student of Faculty of Law, Delhi University, says that LL.B. degree is easily available in the country. “A UGC-NET type exam will help to maintain quality of legal education in this regard”, Ayaz told fachcha.com.

However, Raman an LL.B. student of Meerut College, Meerut says that it is just a way to facilitate students of some of the best universities. There are already several examinations like judicial services examination, Supreme Court examinations and others to get entry into this profession. Another exam will just increase the burden of students and nothing else. Though Shalini Singh, an LL.B. student of Law Centre-I, Delhi University says that this should be taken as a positive step as it will help to promote quality education.

Prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) is now available for legal studies too. Those who are interested in LL.B. degree may apply to IIT for the same. However, the programme is not available for the graduate of arts and commerce stream. Only engineers, doctors or post-graduate in science and pharmacy and management graduates will be eligible for the course.

The three year LL.B. (Hons.) course will be available at the Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property law at IIT, Kharagpur. It will be a fully residential programme with specialization in Intellectual Property Law (IPR). Only those candidates who have completed their degree with first class will be eligible for entrance test. Last date for the submission of the form is 22 January for the course. Entrance exam will be organized on 21st march. Interested candidate may visit www.rgsoipl.iitkgp.ernet.in for details.