Delhi HC issues notice to HRD Ministry, BCI over reduction in DU LL.B. seats

The Delhi High Court today issued notice to the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Delhi University, and the Bar Council of India (BCI) in a matter related to reduction of seats at Faculty of Law..The public interest litigation was filed by one Joginder Kumar Sukhija, an alumnus of the Faculty of Law himself, after he came across news regarding scaling down of seats in the law college..The Bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar has sought the response of the HRD Ministry, DU, and BCI, and posted the matter for June 5..BCI, along with DU had decided that only 1,440 students shall be admitted to the LL.B. course, as opposed to 2,310 students admitted earlier..Opposing this move, the petitioner submitted that Clause 5A of the Legal Education Rules of 2008, which deals with size of the section, has been ‘wrongly’ applied by the BCI, as the number of seats at Faculty of Law was decided way before the Rules came into existence..The petitioner also claims that DU and Faculty of Law are public funded educational institutions receiving grants from the University Grants Commission. Further, by reducing number of admissions, public money was not being put to optimum use. The petition further states,.“A large number of students shall suffer if the number of permissible admissions in LL.B. course are decreased and it will infringe their legal and fundamental right to have higher education of their choice.”.BCI and DU have been at loggerheads on multiple issues in the past, from lack of infrastructure and unification of the three centers, to shutting down of evening classes and reducing the number of students..The Bar Council has also derecognized the law course of DU in the past and was only giving provisional enrollment to the fresh advocates on the assurance that the varsity will abide by the rules and regulations of the council..The Delhi High Court has in the past pulled up DU for its “step motherly” treatment towards Faculty of Law in a PIL filed by Tarun Narang, a student of the Faculty. The plea challenged the unification of the three centers into one building, alleging lack of infrastructure..Read Petition: