Law aspirants in the State are an anxious lot with the government slashing a significant number of LLB seats midway through the admission process, with the Bar Council of India (BCI) strictly enforcing its admission norms.
With 240 seats at stake, the government is pursuing steps to retain them by seeking sanction for additional batches.
Complying with the Rules of Legal Education framed by the BCI in 2009, the government brought down the number of three-year and integrated five-year LLB seats offered in the four government law colleges (in Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Thrissur, and Kozhikode) from 400 to 240 and 320 to 240 respectively.
The move to lower intake came to light when notifications recently issued by the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations for course allotment reflected the change. Notably, the course prospectus, released in March, listed the total number of seats as what had existed previously.
At the same time, the number of five-year LLB seats in 19 private colleges has increased from 1,030 to 1,950.
Under the norms, the size of each class must be restricted to 60 students. While the State universities had chosen to sidestep the rule for a decade, a BCI inspection held at Government Law College, Ernakulam, last year brought the issue to light. Subsequently, the BCI instructed the government to ensure that the rule was complied with, failing which the surplus seats would be considered invalid.
Despite notifying the allotment process with the updated permissible intake, the Higher Education Department has commenced stocktaking in government law colleges. The details of existing intake, facilities and faculty have been sought from the principals.
While certain quarters flagged the dearth of facilities to conduct an additional batch, senior academicians suggested the possibility of fixing separate class hours for the two batches to circumvent the problem.
Considering that the colleges have an average of 15 faculty members, they will also be required to appoint a few teachers to meet the teacher-student ratio of 1:40.
Allaying concerns, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday said the government had decided to commence additional batches. “By doing so, we will not just be able to prevent the loss of seats but increase the total intake,” Mr. Vijayan said, while briefing media persons.