The Bar Council of India (BCI) should refrain from interfering in matters of legal education, and leave such aspects to academicians and jurists, the Supreme Court orally observed on Friday. .Justice Surya Kant made the oral remark while dismissing BCI's challenge to a Kerala High Court ruling that had allowed two men convicted of murder by a trial court to pursue legal education through online modes from jail. "First of all, speaking for myself - and I will persuade my brother also - the BCI has no business to go into legal education...Legal education should be left to the jurists, to legal academicians. Have mercy on the legal education of this country," Justice Kant remarked during the hearing. The judge also noted that both the convicts have now been admitted to law schools. He further questioned BCI's opposition to the move, by asking what would happen if the convicts were to be acquitted in the future (on appeals). The bench of Justices Kant and N Kotiswar Singh eventually dismissed BCI's appeal against the High Court order today on the grounds of delay (the November 2023 ruling was challenged only earlier this month) as well as on merits..The High Court ruling under challenge was delivered in November 2023 by Justices AK Jayasankaran Nambiar and Dr Kauser Edappagath.The life convicts before the High Court had cleared the entrance examination for the LL.B. course conducted by the Kerala Law Entrance Commissioner for the academic year 2023-24, and sought interim bail to pursue their law courses.The BCI's standing counsel told the High Court that only candidates who have passed a regular course of LL.B from a recognised University are entitled to enrol as an advocate. Meanwhile, the principals of the colleges to which the convicts secured admission took a stand that they would permit the applicants to attend the classes online if the Court passed an order to that effect.On November 3, the Court directed that the two applicants be allowed to attend their law courses through online mode. The Court added that they could be released on interim bail, if their physical presence is required for practical training or attending examinations.“A convict is entitled to basic human rights and has the right to live with dignity in jail. The prisoners’ right to education is a human right grounded in the right to dignity. A prisoner has as much a right to pursue study as a person free from the confines of jail," the High Court had reasoned in its ruling. .[Read an account of today's hearing]
