No more admission rounds for law colleges: Maharashtra govt

At a meeting on Wednesday, the officials from the cell and the authority decided to close the admission process, after the government refused to approve the additional round.

The state has turned down the request of law aspirants, who couldn’t secure a seat in their college of choice, to conduct another round of admissions.

Around 15,000 students have been admitted to law colleges across the state, at the end of the long-drawn Centralised Admission Process (CAP), which was employed for the first time for law admissions in the state. (HT file photo)

After the sixth and final round of admission, the aspirants had appealed to the state Common Entrance Test (CET) cell to extend the admission process, which had already stretched to almost half a year. The CET cell had forwarded their request to the state government and the admission regulatory authority. At a meeting on Wednesday, the officials from the cell and the authority decided to close the admission process, after the government refused to approve the additional round.

“Extending the admission period would flout the norms set by Bar Council of India — the apex regulatory body for legal education — and the universities in the state. Many universities have already issued the schedule of [first semester LLB] examinations. As a result the colleges won’t be able to complete the mandatory 90-day term,” said Chandrashekhar Oak, commissioner, CET cell.

Around 15,000 students have been admitted to law colleges across the state, at the end of the long-drawn Centralised Admission Process (CAP), which was employed for the first time for law admissions in the state. Court cases, delays and chaos had plagued the process, resulting in many aspirants in the city unable to secure admission despite availability of seats.

Officials had said that the aspirants had marked a limited number of law colleges from the city and were left without a seat, as most of the seats in the city colleges have been filled. But the students blamed the cell for mismanaging the admission process.

“By conducting an additional round, an entire academic year of students could have ben safeguarded and the colleges would have gotten the fees for many of now vacant seats. It would have been a win-win situation,” said Agastya Samat, a first year student from Government Law College, Churchgate.