'Legal education will be under BCI'

Law minister Salman Khurshid on Sunday gave an assurance that the legal education would continue to remain within the purview of the Bar Council of India (BCI), the country's apex body of lawyers. HT reports.

Law minister Salman Khurshid on Sunday gave an assurance that the legal education would continue to remain within the purview of the Bar Council of India (BCI), the country's apex body of lawyers. He said the new higher education bill was framed to cater to students who desire to study law as an additional subject while pursuing other courses.

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Khurshid said the bill was in league with the structural changes in education taking place across the world, and a balance had to be made between professional bodies like the Bar Council and other bodies regarding legal education.

"There are people who want to read law not to crack law, but who want to combine law with subjects like physics, chemistry, mathematics, management," he said at a seminar at the Indian Law Institute and Bar Council of India to mark 50 years of Advocates' Act. The minister's comments come in the backdrop of strong opposition from the legal fraternity to the proposed bill of the HRD ministry. BCI has alleged that the bill on higher education was aimed at usurping its control over legal education.

Senior advocate and BJP Member of Parliament Ravi Shankar Prasad noted globalization of economy, knowledge and governance was "seriously affecting the landscape of the profession."

Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar stressed on speedy delivery of justice and made fervent plea to lawyers not to undermine their contribution to it.