C M BALARAMAN Vs. REGISTRAR OSMANIA UNIVERSITY HYDERABAD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Bar Council of India addressed a letter dated 11-11-1996 to the Private Secretary to the Hon'ble the Chief Justice, High Court of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad, along with an enclosure another letter dated 8-11-1996 addressed to the Registrar, Osmania University, Hyderabad, for placing the same before the Hon'ble the Chief Justice. The content of the enclosure is that, it refers to some earlier correspondence between the Bar Council of India and Osmania University about the poor state of affairs and standards maintained by most of the law colleges affiliated to the Osmania University. It was further observed by the Bar Council of India in its letter as follows :"The Colleges have not been keen to improve the basic requirements like proper and sufficient accommodation, reasonably good library, sufficient number of qualified fulltime teachers, enforcement of attendance by students and required number of hours of teaching. Whenever the Bar Council of India visited the Law Colleges under the Osmania University, it has found the Law colleges not following the norms laid down by the Bar Council of India. It has been the experience of the Bar Council of India that certain colleges, though they were informed sufficiently in advance about the inspection, purposely avoided the inspection team, fully knowing that if inspection was carried out, their colleges would not survive. These facts were brought to the notice of the University some time back. The Colleges under Osmania University have not improved their conditions since their establishment and sufficient time has been given to them for improvement. In spite of utter failure of the Colleges to comply with the norms of the Bar Council of India, the University seems to be encouraging Law Colleges by way of granting affiliation indiscriminately. It is rather surprising as well as disgusting that even those Colleges which have evaded the inspection teams of the Bar Council of India have been granted affiliation in disregard of the intimation given by the Bar Council of India.The Colleges avoided facing the Inspection teams are :1. Lokamanya Tilak Law Colleges, Hyd.

(2.) Rajiv Gandhi Memorial Law College, Secunderabad.

(3.) Sardar Patel Law College, Hyderabad.More shocking is the action of the University in granting fresh affiliation to the three Law Colleges viz., (1) K. Narayan Reddy Law College, Hyd., (2) Ponugoti Madhav Rao Law College, Hyd. and (3) Ambedkar Law College, Hyderabad, which have been refused approval of affiliation by the Bar Council of India. Therefore your argument that the matter will be reviewed for the next academic year does not hold water at least in respect of these colleges and the Bar Council of India is dismayed at the action of the University granting fresh affiliation for the year 1996-97 and strongly disapproves the action of the University.There is no justification for granting affiliation to such colleges as Universities have to enforce strict discipline in law colleges and see that the colleges under them are complying with the norms of imparting legal education in letter and spirit. But in the instant case, the University itself is encouraging Law Colleges to flout the rules and regulations and it is highly regrettable. The advice of the Bar Council of India to your University to instruct the Convenor of lawcet to not to allot any students to certain law colleges was done with the sole intention that law colleges which have been flouting the norms of the Bar Council of India should not be allowed to impart legal education because the biggest casualty will be the students undergoing law studies in such colleges. However the Bar Council of India regrets that your University has paid scant regards to the opinion of the Bar Council of India in respect to certain law colleges under your University and the Bar Council of India is thoroughly dismayed by the action of the University of granting affiliation to all the Law Colleges without exception totally disregarding the views of the Bar Council of India.Under these circumstances, the Bar Council of India may have to look afresh about the recognition of the Law Degree awarded by your University for the purpose of enrolment as advocates."(Copy of this letter was marked to the Hon'ble the Chief Justice, High Court of Andhra Pradesh, High Court, Hyderabad.)