'Flaws in LLB admission process reducing no of teaching days'

CONCERNED about not being able to adhere to the University Grant Commission UGC guidelines and Maharashtra State University Act about mandatory teaching LLB courses for 90 days and being compelled to wrap the law portion in 45 days instead an associate professor of a law college wrote a letter to state chief secretary and commissioner Common Entrance Test CET cell to highlight flaws in the systemDr Sharmila Ghuge associate professor at Jitendra Chauhan College of Law Vile Parle wrote an overtwentyfivepage letter seeking that the LLB admission process be streamlined to avoid delay in the commencement of the academic year for the threeyear LLB and fiveyear BLSLLB courses in July every yearldquoIve been teaching law students for over 20 years and my heart bleeds when I have to finish teaching a crucial subject like the Constitution of India to law students within 40 days instead of 90mdashas per UGC guidelinesmdashand these complexities are arising due to the haphazard and untimely procedure adopted by the CET cell state of Maharashtra for conducting the entrance exam for law course displaying the merit list and conducting and completing the admission rounds The entire admission process has become a nightmare for the students their parents and institutionsrdquo said Dr GhugeDr Ghuge justified her concern stating ldquoSince 2016 when the CET exam was introduced till 202223 the CET chart shows the time period runs up to five months till the admission process is completed from the date of the CET exam In the year 201617 CET exam was held on June 30 2016 and the final admission list sent to the authority was on November 7 2016 after declaring the MHCET result the time to complete the whole CAP process took around five monthsrdquoldquoLikewise in 201920 202021 and 202122 after declaring the MHCET result the authorities concerned revised the CAP circular and the time to complete the whole CAP process took more than four months For 202223 after declaring the MHCET result the circular had been revised from time to time and finally took four to five months to complete the process The academic year commenced in January 2023 for the threeyear law courserdquo said Dr GhugeAlso read Mumbai Sonu Nigams fathers driver arrested for robbery at his home Rs 70 lakh recoveredShe continued ldquoOnce the academic year begins the university displays the examination schedule for the semester 1 exam and due to the cumbersome and delayed process of the CAP rounds the commencement of the academic year is delayed by four to five months and consequently the number of teaching days is reduced and the faculty have to squeeze in the syllabus for the law subjectsrdquoWhat rules sayAs per the UGCGuidelines for Adoption of Choice Based Credit System 2015 lsquoeach semester will consist of 1518 weeks of academic work equivalent to 90 actual teaching days The odd semester may be scheduled from July to December and even semester from January to June Similarly the Bar Council of India Legal Education Rules 2008 specify that lsquolaw courses shall be conducted in semester system in not less than 15 weeks and shall ensure 90 working days as per semester excluding examination and seminars which has gone completely for a tossldquoIf such a system continues imagine the quality of advocates and judges the future legal profession would get We have now moved out of the COVID19 phase and there was no need to squeeze three semesters in one year at the cost of quality of legal education harassment to the students burden on teachers and hampering the teachinglearning excellencerdquo Ghuge concludedThe letter has also been marked to the registrar of Mumbai University Bar Council of India and even to the secretary UGC New Delhi Surprisingly none of them replied to Dr GhugeLaw college principal speaksU K Nambiar principal MCT Law College Airoli said ldquoIt is true that the delay in the CAP round admission process usually takes four to five months after the declaration of CET results which has been happening for the past few years adversely impacting the academic calendar for law students and even the faculties who are strained to complete the syllabus on a war footing which is unfairrdquoNambiar added ldquoWe are not against CET examinations it is a must but the need of the hour is to have a singlewindow system for verifying documents and clearing the same which does not happen todayrdquoHe added ldquoThe CET and university conduct superficial verification of documents and mark sheets submitted by students at the time of enrolling for CET and the onus is on the college principals to ensure that they verify all documents thoroughly or are held responsible for any lapses in the future Admission is granted to students on the basis of their CET scores and seats are allotted by the CET cell but the documents such as caste certificates of the students are sent again for verification to the department of higher and technical education Pune and if they find any discrepancies the students admission get cancelled which happen after the studentsrsquo academic year in law has started and to avoid this a singlewindow coordination system should be put in place where CET Mumbai University the department and law college principals should be brought under one roof so that verification and seat allotment can happen in a short time so that no student is left in the lurchrdquoOther sidemidday tried reaching out to the office of Professor Manish Joshi secretary and Ravi Narayan undersecretary CPC 2 UGC New Delhi but they were unavailable for commentManan Kumar Mishra chairman Bar Council of India when contacted said ldquoI am travelling and asked that he be contacted laterMhCET reactsAn official attached to the CET cell said ldquoThis year onwards we are making an attempt to streamline the entire CET and CAP round process so that the academic year can commence at least from Julyend or early August for LLB courses Therefore we have fixed the date for the CET LLB 5year courses for April 20 and for LLB 3year courses for May 2 and May 3 The results will be declared within two weeks thereafter This year so far over 36800 students have already paid fees and have been confirmed for the LLB threeyear CET and around 22520 have registered for the fiveyear LLB courserdquo The CET registration is going on till March 31The official added ldquoEven students appearing for their regular graduation programmes are allowed to appear for CET examinations Unless the graduation results are out the CAP round cannot start Therefore this year the education minister secretary and CET commissioner had meetings to ensure that university graduation results are declared on timerdquoAsked to clarify the connection between graduation results and CET connection the official said ldquoMany students score the same marks in the CET examination In such a situation during the admission process we have to consider the graduation marks and weightage is given to students with higher graduation marks to allot their preferred law college for admissionrdquo