CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has prohibited Annamalai University from admitting new students for under graduate law courses. The court also directed that those already admitted can switch over to alternative admissions in recognised courses.
“The upshot of the above discussion and analysis is that Annamalai University is prohibited from offering any bachelor degree in law without at least adhering to the standards set by BCI in the Rules of Legal Education. So, no one should be admitted to such courses and those already admitted should be instructed to seek alternative admissions in recognised courses,” the court said.
The first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy, in its order, further said the State should extend all possible assistance to mitigate the hardship of the affected students. However, the court has allowed the varsity to go ahead with other law programmes.
“As regards to other courses in law, in the absence of standards in such regard by the BCI and given the limited role of BCI in such regard, Annamalai University cannot be prevented from offering such courses,” the bench said. The order was passed on a petition filed by B Ramkumar Adityan who said the bachelor, masters and diploma courses in law offered by the varsity were not approved by BCI.