Nithyakalyani Narayanan. V
Kerala High Court Judge Justice A Muhamed Mustaque, in his inaugural address for the “Juris Trailblazers” on Sunday, had remarked that, “Bar council members are dictating the syllabus. This is the biggest tragedy we are facing in India. The minuscule number of people get elected through an election decide about legal education. They are only litigation professionals. Their domain of knowledge is only litigation and then they dictate the syllabus. This is the biggest challenge we are facing in India. They don’t have any idea what is happening beyond litigation“. The BCI issued a press release on the same day, criticising his statement.
Justice Mustaque added that the Council mainly comprises advocates whose knowledge is limited to litigation and this reflects in the curriculum they prescribe. “[Law] Colleges have no autonomy to decide their curriculum. If they don’t follow the curriculum dictated by the Bar Council, necessarily they will face some penal action and their course will not be recognised“.
The BCI stated that Justice does not have the liberty to pass any such statement against anyone or any organisation without any knowledge about it just being a judge. The press statement stated that “The committee is headed by a former judge of Supreme Court and it has two sitting Chief Justices of High Courts as its co-chairs. Besides, there are two former Chief Justices of High Courts and eleven renowned academicians, including vice-chancellors of National Law Universities, Deans of Central Universities and other government and private law universities as it’s members apart from some noted Senior Advocates of the country. The policies and norms of legal education are decided by this high level committee only. The Hon’ble Judge should know that there are only 5 elected Members of the Bar Council in its legal education committee”.
The BCI reminded the recent signing of MoU with the Bar Council of England and Wales and the Law Society of England and Wales to allow an exchange programme for lawyers, while comparing the standard of Indian legal education. The BCI said, “Today, the standard of Legal Education in India is second to none. The people suffering from inferiority complex and who have a feeling in their minds that only a few foreign Universities are very good, make such irresponsible comments. Bar Councils are fully aware of many so-called top Universities of the world and it is also aware of the mal-practices adopted by many such Institutions”.