It’s high time the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu focuses on improving legal education and makes efforts to prevent the entry of criminals into the profession, say some lawyers, pointing to a shocking figure — over 500 advocates practising across Tamil Nadu have police cases, including attempt to murder and cheating, against them. The figure was obtained from the Tamil Nadu police under the Right to Information Act.
“The worst thing is that some criminals have become advocates in recent years. To protect themselves from the police, the criminals have obtained bogus legal degrees from law colleges outside Tamil Nadu and enrolled themselves as advocates. But the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu is least bothered about it,” complained K Tamilselvan, vice-chairman of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry District and Subordinate Courts Bar Federation.
The Bar Council is also not putting stress on the quality of legal education despite the Shanmugam commission, which probed the violence at the Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Government Law College campus, pointing out that the quality of legal education in the college was poor, said E Edwig, president of Advocate for Basic Change and Democracy, an advocacy group for implementing uniformed legal education.
The Madras High Court had in 2009 recommended the standardisation of legal education in Tamil Nadu to keep pace with new trends, but the wise counsel fell on deaf ears, said R Karthikeyan of Madras High Court, who also teaches at Dr Ambedkar Government Law College.
The lack of uniform legal education system has created of two sets of lawyers, claimed Edwig. One, from elite national law schools, where students get picked by law firms during campus interviews; and the other from government colleges who have no option other than to practise in local courts.
V C Vijay Kumar, Vice-Chancellor of Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University, said Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily was positive about revamping legal education in the country.