Report No. 184

3.7 The criticism that the Ahmadi Committee recommended only one member of the Faculty to be on the Legal Education Committee is, in our view, justified. But, the other view, that the Bar Council and Judges should have nothing to do with legal education cannot be accepted in as much as, under Entries 77 and 78 of List I, the subject matter of legislation is 'practice in courts' and the Advocates Act, 1961 is a law made for that purpose.

As pointed out in Chapter II, though generally, in the matter of 'standards of legal education' the UGC or the Universities may have primacy, in the matter of standards of legal education for those students who will practice in Courts, the primacy is of the Bar and the Judiciary. This was the view of the Setalved Committee also in the 14th Report. But at the same time, that does not mean that the law teachers have no place in the fixing of the standards.

In our view, there must be discussion by the Bar Council of India with the Universities or with, as proposed, a body of legal faculty, representative of the law teaching community in the entire country, to be nominated by the UGC. We are of the view that the proposal made in this Chapter and the next Chapter (viz., Chapter IV), will balance the roles of the Bar, Judiciary and the law teachers and once the number of teachers in the Legal Education Committee is increased, there will be no room for any grievance.

3.8 Here, we may mention that in the next chapter, i.e. Chapter IV, we are recommending the constitution of a Legal Education Committee of the 32 UGC, a body which will be representative of all Universities with whom the Bar Council of India will have to consult for the purposes of section 7(1)(h).

3.9 Further, we have re-examined the issue of membership of the Legal Education Committee in the light of the responses of the UGC, Bar Council of India and the Faculty, to the Working Paper. We find that the grievance of the Bar Council of India that it has been given only a one-third share (5 out of 15) is genuine and has to be accepted. The original ratio of 5 out of 10 is to be maintained. It is, therefore, proposed to drop the idea of the 15- member Committee as proposed in the Working Paper and to adhere to the 10-member Committee as at present making it clear that one half, i.e. five members, will be Bar Councillors.

As of now, the remaining five are nonBar Councillors. We propose to make some changes in the composition of the remaining five and here the Bar Council of India can have no grievance. Out of the remaining five members, one will continue to be a retired Judge of the Supreme Court, one other will be a retired Chief Justice/retired Judge of a High Court, to be nominated by the Chief Justice of India. (It appears that such a procedure is already being followed by the Bar Council of India).

Of the remaining three to be nominated, the Law Commission agrees with the UGC that the Law Secretary, Govt. of India and the Secretary, UGC can be dropped. In those two places now occupied by non-Bar Councillors, it is proposed to bring in two more from the faculty making it three from the faculty instead of one as at present and these three are to be nominated by the UGC and the three faculty members must, as stated in the next Chapter, be faculty members of the proposed UGC Legal Education Committee and also be teachers actually in office.

In case, during the tenure of the Bar Council of India's Legal Education Committee, any vacancy occurs in these three faculty positions either by retirement or otherwise, the UGC will have to nominate fresh faculty members who are in office, in replacement. They must be of the rank of Law Professors/Principals of Law College/Vice-Chancellors/Directors of Law Universities, as stated in Ch. IV.

3.10 The retired Judge of the Supreme Court on the Committee should, in our view, be the Chairman of the Legal Education Committee in the same manner as at present, and shall have a casting vote.

3.11 We would also like to recommend a separate provision enabling the Attorney General for India to participate in the meetings of the Legal Education Committee whether on his own or on invitation by the Chairman of the Committee, and he may, if necessary, vote on any resolution.

3.12 We, therefore, recommend that the Legal Education Committee of the Bar Council of India will thus be a committee representing the Bar, the Bench and the Faculty, as visualized by the Report of the All India Bar Committee, 1953, referred to in the 14th Report of the Law Commission of India, headed by Shri M.C. Setalvad and will have five from the Bar Council of India, three from the faculty, a retired Judge of the Supreme Court and a retired Chief Justice/Judge of the High Court. The AttorneyGeneral for India can participate on his own or on invitation and he may, if necessary, vote on any resolution.

The above proposals will be made in the proposed section 10AA.

3.13 We, therefore, propose as follows:

(1) Section 7(1)(h) has to be amended by providing for "consultation" as proposed in section 10AA to be inserted in the Advocates Act, 1961, with the Legal Education Committee of the UGC constituted by the University Grants Commission.

(2) Clause (b) of subsection (2) of section 10 has to be amended to provide for membership of Legal Education Committee of the Bar Council of India representing different classes of persons. The Committee shall comprise of 5 members from the Bar Council of India, one retired Judge of the Supreme Court of India, one retired Chief Justice/Judge of a High Court both to be nominated by the Chief Justice of India and three academicians in law to be nominated by the University Grants Commission and these three should be members of the proposed UGC Committee on Legal Education and all three of them must be in office and one of them must be Director/Vice-Chancellor of a statutory Law University. The Chairman of the Committee, namely, the retired judge of the Supreme Court, shall have a casting vote.

(3) The Attorney General for India can, at his option, participate in the meetings of the Legal Education Committee of the Bar Council of India and the Chairman of that Committee shall be entitled to request the Attorney General to participate in the proceedings of the Committee and when he so participates, he is entitled to vote.

(4) All questions which come up before any meeting of the Bar Council Legal Education Committee shall be decided by a majority of the votes of the members present and voting and in the event of an equality of votes, the Chairman shall have and exercise a second or casting vote. It requires insertion of subsection (2A) in section 10 of the Advocates Act, 1961.

(5) The Bar Council Legal Education Committee should meet at least once in every three months.

(6) In section 10A of the principal Act, in sub-section (4), for the words, "every committee thereof except the Disciplinary Committees ", the words "every committee thereof except the Bar Council Legal Education Committee and the Disciplinary Committees", shall be substituted.