BCI files affidavit in law admission case

Updated on: Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Mumbai: The Bar Council of India (BCI), the apex rule making body which governs legal education, has finally filed its affidavit to oppose the clutch of PIL challenging its age restriction for law college admissions. The BCI had revised the eligibility rules to make 30 the maximum age for seeking law college admissions in India.

“The restriction is only for professional courses that would entitle graduates to be enrolled as an advocate but does not restrict universities from starting legal education for academic purposes,’’ the BCI informed the Bombay high court. The BCI claimed that it has now made legal education “truly professional’’ and “the main reason for imposing an age limit was to deter students from other vocations who have wide contacts and ability to corner briefs’’.

“Students joining law studies after retirement or from other streams are not serious,’’ the BCI said, adding that “it leads to undue advantage to such lawyers and unfair competition..besides young minds train well.’’ The legal curriculum in India also had to be changed “to keep economic changes brought about by globalisation’’, the BCI said. Advocate Mahesh Vaswani, who is appearing for petitioner Shabnam Mulani and advocate Yasmin Tavaria who challenged the age cut-off as being unconstitutional, are filing a rejoinder to the BCI stand. Since a number of PILs have challenged its controversial rule before various high courts, the BCI said it is now approaching the Supreme Court to transfer all petitions there and decide the matter finally.

The BCI argued that other professional courses have an age limit prescribed and also that “the right to practise law is not a fundamental right but only a privilege granted under the Advocates Act’’. By restricting the age limit to 20 for the fiveyear course and 30 for the three-year LLB course, the BCI aimed to “encourage only those who wished to make law their first career choice’’.

BCI files affidavit in law admission case

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