The Madras High Court today asked the Bar Council of India to abolish the three-year law degree courses at the earliest and retain only five-year courses in the stream on par with other professional courses like medicine and engineering.
The observation was made by Justice N Kirubakaran while passing an interim order on a criminal original petition by one S M Anantha Murugan seeking a direction to prevent intrusion of persons having criminal antecedents without studying Bachelor of Law Degree
He said three-year law degree courses should be done away with to make the course a serious one like other professional courses such as medicine and engineering.
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The judge, in a 112-page order, also directed the central government to consider positively, within six months, entrusting the functions of the Bar Council of India to an expert body.
This, he said, should be headed by a retired Supreme Court Judge permanently or till the Advocates' Act and the Bar Council Rules are revisited.
Besides, the committee should nominate academicians, legal luminaries, prominent social workers, retired IAS officers, police officers and doctors as members, the interim order said.
Justice N Kirubakaran, who gave 14 directions to the Union of India and the Bar Council of India, also said BCI should direct the State Bar Councils to withdraw the recognition/approval given to various Bar/Advocates Associations for the past 20 years maintaining one Court-one Bar Association, except in the case of older associations.
