Role of Bar Council of India in

Promoting Legal Education

INTRODUCTION & STATUTORY

FUNCTIONS
The Bar Council of India is a statutory body established under the Advocates Act 1961 that

regulates the legal practice and legal education in India. The Bar Council of India is a statutory
body created by Parliament to regulate and represent the Indian bar. The Council performs the
regulatory function by prescribing standards of professional conduct and etiquette and by
exercising disciplinary jurisdiction over the bar. The Council also sets standards for legal
education and grants recognition to Universities whose degree in law will serve as qualification
for enrolment as an advocate.
Section 7 of the Advocates Act 1961 lays down the following statutory functions:
1. To lay down standards of professional conduct and etiquette for advocates.
2. To lay down procedure to be followed by its disciplinary committee and the disciplinary

committees of each State Bar Council.

3. To safeguard the rights, privileges and interests of advocates.
4. To promote legal education and to lay down standards of legal education. This is done in
consultation with the Universities in India imparting legal education and the State Bar
Councils.
5. To recognize Universities whose degree in law shall be a qualification for enrolment as an
advocate. The Bar Council of India visits and inspects Universities, or directs the State
Bar Councils to visit and inspect Universities for this purpose.

RULES ON PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Act in a dignified manner

Respect the court
Not communicate in private
Refuse to act in an illegal manner towards the opposition
Refuse to represent clients who insist on unfair means
Appear in proper dress code

ENROLMENT OF ADVOCATES:
.
The Advocates Act, 1961 empowers State Bar Councils to frame their own rules regarding
enrolment of advocates. All applicants for enrolment as advocates are required under
Section 24 (1) (f) of the Advocates Act, 1961 to pay an enrolment fee of Rs.600 to the
respective State Bar Council and Rs.150/-to the Bar Council of India.
.
Section 24 of the Advocates Act specifies the qualifications of a person entitled to be
enrolled into the Bar. The criteria's are as follows:
.
He is a citizen of India
.
He has completed the age of twenty-one years.
.
He has obtained a degree in law after the 12th day of March, 1967, after undergoing a
three years course of study in law from any University in India which is recognized for
the purposes of the Advocates Act by the Bar Council of India

COMMITTEES OF BCI

LEGAL EDUCATION COMMITTEE

DISCIPLINARY COMMITTEE
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
ADVOCATE WELFARE COMMITTEE
LEGAL AID COMMITTEE
BUILDING COMMITTEE
RULES COMMITTEE

Legal education committee: The Legal Education Committee consists of five members of the Bar

Council of India and five co-opted members to represent the judiciary, the Law Ministry, the University
Grants Commission, and academia. This committee makes recommendations to the Bar Council of India
on all matters pertaining to legal education in the country. The committee elects its own Chairman.
The Legal Education Committee has the power:
To make recommendations to the Council for laying down the standards of legal education for
Universities.
To visit and inspect Universities and report the results to the Council.
To recommend to the Council the conditions subject to which foreign qualification in law
obtained by persons other than citizens of India may be recognized.
To recommend to the Council for recognition of any degree in law of any University in the
territory of India.
To recommend the discontinuance of recognition of any University already made by the Council.

 DISCIPLINARY COMMITTEE- The disciplinary committee of the Bar Council of India

hears applications for revision by persons against summary dismissal of their complaints
against advocates for professional misconduct, by the State Bar Councils
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE-The Executive Committee is the executive authority of the
Council, and is responsible for giving effect to the resolutions of the Council
ADVOCATES WELFARE COMMITTEE- The Advocates Welfare Committee looks into
applications made by advocates through various State Bar Councils for welfare funds. The
committee verifies the application and allocates funds
LEGAL AID COMMITTEE- The Legal Aid Committee provides aids to those requiring legal
assistance.
BUILDING COMMITTEE- The Building Committee is responsible for setting up offices for
the Council.
RULES COMMITTEE-The Rules Committee reviews the rules and regulations of the
Council.

BCI TRUST
The Bar Council of India Trust was created by the Bar Council of India on April 27, 1974 as a

public charitable trust. The trust works towards maintaining professional standards in the legal
profession and effecting improvements in legal education. The Trust is also active in other
fields such as providing legal aid to the disadvantaged; publication of textbooks for students
and law reports; and activities promoting welfare of the members of the Indian legal
profession.
a) National Law School of India University, Bangalore- The Bar Council of India Trust is also
at the forefront in delivering world-class instruction in law, in India. The Trust established the
first National Law University in Bangalore in 1987. It was the inspiration for the
establishment by various states of similar National Law Universities such as the NALSAR
University, Hyderabad and the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences,
Kolkata.
b) National Moot Court Competition-The National Moot Court Competition of the Bar
Council of India is organised under the Trust, and has been promoting advocacy skills
amongst law students, since its inception in 1981. The eagerly awaited event is organised by
the Trust in association with an Indian University and sees fierce competition between teams
from 40 different universities.
c) Indian Bar Review-The Indian Bar Review, the quarterly journal of the Bar Council of
India Trust, is rated among the top legal periodicals in the country. Since 1972, the journal has
informed and educated the judiciary, lawyers, students, and academics about the latest trends,
developments, and scholarship in the field of law and legal education.

d) Continuing Legal Education- The BCI trust is invested heavily in updating the knowledge and
skills of practicing advocates and to promote specialization in professional services. Workshops
are organised regularly in various parts of the country to help advocates develop their skills in a
variety of topics like constitutional litigation, advocacy, labour adjudication, tort litigation,
administrative law and adjudication and environmental laws. The Trust has also assembled
high-quality reading materials on all these subjects.

DIRECTORATE OF LEGAL EDUCATION

The Bar Council of India has established a Directorate of Legal Education for the purpose of
organizing, running, conducting, holding, and administering the following
Continuing Legal Education
Teachers training
Advanced specialized professional courses
Education program for Indian students seeking registration after obtaining Law Degree
from a Foreign University
Research on professional Legal Education and Standardization
Seminar and workshop
Legal Research
Any other assignment that may be assigned to it by the Legal Education committee and
the Bar Council of India

ALL INDIA BAR EXAMINATION

On April 10, 2010, the Bar Council of India resolved to conduct an All India Bar Examination

that tests an advocates ability to practice law. It is required for an advocate to pass this
examination to practice law. This examination is held biannually and tests advocates on
substantive and procedural law. Once the advocate passes the examination, he/she will be
entitled to a Certificate of Practice law throughout India

PROBLEMS
The pace of change towards improving the quality of legal education was watered down by the

very same Bar Council through a series of compromises adopted in the course of the last two
decades. These include
Not following the distinction between professional and liberal legal education in categorizing
the over 500 law teaching institutions for extending BCI jurisdiction
Reducing the eligibility criteria for admission to the professional law course; there is need to
fix the age to get entered into a law college, like law school all other law colleges should fixed
the maximum age with in 20years for the general category students 23years for a economically
backward students
Inability to mobilise funds for supporting improvements in legal education, particularly among
institutions located outside metropolitan cities; the institution situated out side the metro city is
suffering from various problems due to lack of fund. They could not afford a good law library.
They did not have the chance to get other facilities of the metros. They could not invite good
faculty for these lack of fund. On the other hand all these good faculty prefers to stay in a
Metro cities.

 Inability to deter full-time teachers from practicing law and thereby depriving students of the

benefit of services of these teachers; after completion of the course every one hade to go for the
practical use of the law. So it is very important to know the practical situation from a person
who is expert in that particular field. In that case none but the practicing lawyer is the best
teacher.
The experts of a particular discipline should start detailed studies on that subject . In the recent
years we saw Indian Institute of technology, Khargapur come out with new course on law
related to Technology and Computers. No other institutions than IIT, IISc, ISI are the best in
their respective field of Science and technology and statistic. So if they start to use their
intellectuals in this field then the development in law will be the unimaginable.Like wise if the
Business schools comes out with different law courses on the corporate management then it
will be beneficial for the corporate law field.

CONCLUSION To be able to solve these problems we must have an awareness of the challenges involved and

the changes taking place in contemporary times.

In structuring the institutions and procedures, particularly in periods of transition, lawyers will
have to assist communities, interest groups and governments keeping in mind the requirements
of equity, justice and fairness
It will be important to devote thought on how to adopt our legal education to modern
conditions so that the coming generation may fit in the new society that is envisaged. Legal
education is an investment, which if wisely made will produce most beneficial results for the
society.