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HC asks law colleges to stop admissions for now, scraps B.Ed college appointments
PATNA The Patna High Court on Monday stopped all the government and private law colleges in Bihar from taking admission for the time being due infrastructure deficiencies and lack of teachers, which, it said, were hampering proper education
PATNA
The Patna High Court on Monday stopped all the government and private law colleges in Bihar from taking admission for the time being due infrastructure deficiencies and lack of teachers, which, it said, were hampering proper education.
In another case, the HC also quashed the appointment of assistant professors in the state’s B.Ed colleges, terming them illegal.
Hearing a petition by Kunal Kaushal, the bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Karol has also sought replies from the Chancellor’s office, state government, universities concerned and others on the basis of the report of the Bar Council of India (BCI), which underlined that the law colleges did not have proper system for imparting education.
Petitioner’s counsel Dinu Kumar later said that most of the 28 law colleges, affiliated to different universities in the state, were not following laid down provisions and there was no facility of proper education, which led to fall in quality. “The next hearing is scheduled on April 23,” he said.
As per the Advocates Act, 1961, BCI is the regulatory authority for law education. Besides, there are legal professional rules, 2005.
Though Kaushal had filed the petition with regard to TNB Law College (Bhagalpur) and sought direction to fill up the vacancy of principal, 10 regular teachers and eight part-time teachers against the sanctioned posts and remove infrastructure deficiencies, the HC had last month decided to take up the issue with regard to all law colleges, considering their pathetic state.
The court also took cognizance of the attempt by the Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur university and the state to blame each other for large-scale vacancies in the TNB Law College and pathetic condition of the university. It also cited BCI rules for regular inspection of colleges.
In its affidavit, the BCI attached the inspection reports of 26 of the 28 law colleges, which highlighted shortage of teachers and infrastructure. It also provided the status report of existing and required faculty members and class rooms of existing law colleges. “BCI has not approved the existing courses with existing sections for next or subsequent academic sessions. It can be done only after thorough examination of facts,” the affidavit said.
B.Ed College appointments
The single-judge bench of the Justice Anil Kumar Upadhyay quashed the appointment of assistant professors in teachers’ training colleges of the state.
The order came on Monday on a bunch of petitions by Ravi Kumar and others, which alleged that against the 478 advertised vacancies, appointments were made on 451 only and there was tampering in reservation roster.
Earlier, the court had directed the state government to ensure appointments were made as per the advertisement, but there was no concrete action from the state government. Finally, the bench quashed the appointments.
