Senior Advocate Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi has suggested that Bar Council of India be divested of its responsibility to regulate the legal profession and a separate body including CJI be givent the same.
He proposed that a national assessment body independent of the BCI or a separate broad-based group should take that role. It shall be comprised of academicians including the CJI, he proposed.
The primary reason he stated is that BCI is pre-occupied with plethora of responsibilities from law reform, disciplining lawyers to legal education and the vicissitudes of electoral politics.
He opined that since BCI has to multi-function, chances of compromises in few tasks are highly likely.
Thus, addressing the 'elephant in the room', he batted for a separate body having no direct involvement of BCI office bearers.
"The elephant in the room must be addressed. It is big and powerful, it is the Bar Council. It has too many functions - law reform, disciplining lawyers, legal education and the vicissitudes of electoral politics. Sometimes there will be compromises in the discharge of these multiple functions. You can see I have used my words carefully. Either a separate broad based group of academicians including CJI should be set up, or a national assessment body independent of BCI needed to regulate the legal profession," he said.
The suggestion was induced by him while speaking at the American Bar Association India Conference 2023 on the topic 'Future of Legal Education: Glocalisation of Legal Profession?'
One of his argument was that the lack of focus on legal education in India is resulting in an ocean of mediocrity in the field and that there is a need for distributive equity and the implementation of a national unified simplified plan for legal education.
"The elephant in the room must be addressed. It is big and powerful, it is the Bar Council. It has too many functions - law reform, disciplining lawyers, legal education and the vicissitudes of electoral politics. Sometimes there will be compromises in the discharge of these multiple functions. You can see I have used my words carefully. Either a separate broad based group of academicians including CJI should be set up, or a national assessment body independent of BCI needed to regulate the legal profession," he said.
The suggestion was induced by him while speaking at the American Bar Association India Conference 2023 on the topic 'Future of Legal Education: Glocalisation of Legal Profession?'
One of his argument was that the lack of focus on legal education in India is resulting in an ocean of mediocrity in the field and that there is a need for distributive equity and the implementation of a national unified simplified plan for legal education.
The Senior Advocate also addressed the 'serious problem' of lack of law teachers and depth in the field and suggested removal of financial caps and enabling teaching for minimum periods and in the backdrop highlighted need for a national plan for placement, internship, and training to ensure senior experienced practitioners take a minimum number of classes.
"We need an organised computerised national plan for placement, internship and training. There is a jungle raj out there. A national scheme must ensure that senior experienced practitioners take a minimum number of classes," he said.
He also brought into discussion, the poor state of Law Colleges in the country, marking that they lack 'requisite facilities'. Mr. Singhvi hinted that colleges like these have grown like weed and in some States universities have become mere affiliation bodies for such private law schools.
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(With input from news agency language)
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