JOMOL JOHN Vs. BAR COUNCIL OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioners are students undergoing Five Year integrated B.com. LLB (Hons) course in the Government Law College, Ernakulam. They have joined for the course in the academic year 2016-2017 and the course is supposed to be over in the academic year 2020-2021. In terms of Rule 24 of Schedule II to the Rules of Legal Education framed by the Bar Council of India, internship is part of the curriculum of the course. Rule 25 of Schedule III to the Rules of the Legal Education provides that each registered student shall have completed a minimum of 20 weeks internship during the period of legal studies. It is clarified, however, in the said Rule that internship in any year cannot be for a continuous period exceeding four weeks. It is stated by the petitioners that they could complete, on an average, only 12 weeks internship during their course as none of the institutions prescribed in the Rules permitted internship during the last two years due to the outbreak of the pandemic, COVID - 19. It is also stated by the petitioners that they will not be able to complete the remaining period of their internship before culmination of the course as there will be online classes for them before the pending semester examinations. It is alleged by the petitioners that if the term of the internship provided for in the Rules is not appropriately relaxed, the petitioners would not be in a position to complete their course. The petitioners, therefore, seek appropriate directions in this regard in the writ petition.

(2.) A statement has been filed by the Bar Council of India indicating, among others, that the grievance voiced by the petitioners is genuine and the University to which the college is affiliated is free to adopt any other appropriate measures which they may feel adequate to satisfy the requirements of the course.

(3.) Heard the learned counsel for the petitioners, the learned Standing Counsel for the Bar Council of India as also the learned Standing Counsel for Mahatma Gandhi University.