Students protest as Patna Law College affiliation ends

PATNA: About 50 students staged a protest on the Patna Law College premises on Saturday over the delay in getting the affiliation renewed by the Bar Council of India (BCI) for its LLB course. The students have applied for admission in LLB course at the college under Patna University.
The protesters were joined by the members of youth wings of political parties, including All India Students’ Federation (AISF) and Jan Adhikar Party-Loktantrik (JAP-L) against the college administration and state government for not recruiting enough teachers to meet the requirement for the BCI affiliation.
When contacted, BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra told this newspaper that the affiliation of LLB course at Patna Law College was withheld due to faculty crunch. “The three-year affiliation granted to the college ended this year. The college had applied for extension, which could not be given due to shortage of faculty. They have only 11 teachers against the affiliation norm for 40:1 students and teachers ratio,” he said.
Mishra said, “The college has promised to fulfil the faculty crunch with a month or two. We will see what steps the college is taking to meet the requirement. The decision on extension of affiliation will be taken next week on this parameter only.”
He added: “If the college failed to fulfil its promise, the BCI will impose a fine or cancel the affiliation. The affiliation will be conditional, but it will not affect the students who get admissions in the 2019-20 session.”
College principal Md Sharif said as soon as the BCI renews its affiliation to LLB course, the college will resume the admission process. “We have 11 permanent teachers against 777 students in LLB course. To meet the BCI norms, the college has already advertised for recruitment of 19 more teachers as guest faculty,” he said.
Meanwhile, protesting students claimed the entrance exam for LLB course was extended from May 26 to June 6 and now the college administration failed to give any further information regarding that.