Law faculty admission delayed again due to ‘legal hurdles’

NEW DELHI: For the second time, Delhi University on Thursday notified that the Faculty of Law’s counselling schedule could not be released “due to legal hurdles”, leaving students who appeared for its entrance test in the lurch.

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The university cannot begin admissions without a go-ahead from the Bar Council of India (BCI) — the authority that controls legal education in India. The BCI is yet to submit a report based on its July 19 inspection of the new building.

The university had proposed to shift the three law centres — Law Centre 1, Campus Law Centre (CLC) and Law Centre 2 to a new building at Chhatra Marg in north campus, near the law faculty’s current location. CLC student Tarun Narang had filed a case in the high court against the decision, saying the building lacked space and infrastructure to fit all three centres.

A university official said the BCI will decide on three centres’ intake capacity because of which the process was stalled.

“We have to wait for a go ahead from the BCI and the court. The only option for us is to wait,” said a senior university official.

Till last year, the university took 2,100 students in the first year. If the BCI rule is followed, the number could be reduced to 900.

The students are worried that they may not get a seat owing to the capacity reduction.

“The admissions to all other colleges have been closed. In case I do not qualify to DU, the entire one year will be wasted . There is still no clarity on when the counselling will begin,” said an aspirant from Punjab.

However, DU’s notice said the counselling schedule will be updated by August second week.

“The next date of hearing in the court is on August 22. Is DU going to wait for it? Even if the session does start by August, when will the syllabus be completed?” said Narang.

The university on July 21 issued a circular saying that the session was being postponed due to “unavoidable circumstances”.