Bar Council of India recommends closure of DU Law Faculty

New Delhi: In a fresh trouble for Delhi University Law faculty, a Bar Council of India panel has recommended its closure after it found lack of infrastructure and other irregularities in the functioning of the department.

DU authorities, however, maintained that the needful is being done and the irregularities if any will be sorted out before commencement of new session in August this year.

"We are of the firm view that the Campus Law Centre should be closed down, but seeing the career of the students as well as the reputation of the university, a lenient view may be taken by the Legal Education Committee," says a report of BCI panel, which conducted an inspection of the DU's Law faculty.

Headed by retired Rajasthan high court judge VS Dave, the seven-member inspection committee include vice-chancellor of National Law University Ranbir Singh, Director of Indian Law Institute Manoj Kumar Sinha, and members of the Bar Council of India (BCI) and Delhi Bar Council (DBC).

The panel said faculty was in news last September when BCI, the apex regulatory body for legal education and the legal profession in India, chose to derecognise DU's law course after the varsity failed to seek timely extension of the affiliation of its three centres namely - Campus Law Centre, Law Centre-I and Law Centre-II.

Delhi High Court had also directed the varsity to ensure proper infrastructure in keeping with BCI norms. In its reply to the court, DU had proposed to the shift to a new building which it claimed "had adequate space" for the faculty to run properly.

Besides pointing out infrastructural shortcomings like lack of sufficient number of classrooms, separate library or moot court facility, the BCI panel also highlighted that there was lack of adequate number of permanent faculty.

It also criticised the functioning of the Dean, saying, he did not update the varsity's central office about the issues.

Source:TOI