End-term exams must for final and intermediate year law students: Bar Council of India

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 10

Ending weeks of confusion created due to the second wave of Covid-19, the Bar Council of India (BCI) on Thursday said end-term examinations are mandatory for law students enrolled with law schools, universities and centres of legal education across the country.

The BCI – which regulates legal profession and legal education in India – however, said law schools, universities, and centres of legal education were free to determine the mode of examination.

The decision is based on the report of a high-level committee set up by the top bar body under the chairmanship of former Allahabad High Court Chief Justice Govind Mathur to consider the issue.

Several vice chancellors of national law universities and some private universities were part of the committee.

Universities or centres of legal education will conduct examination for intermediate and final year students as per their own dispensation, depending upon the availability of resources and the impact of Covid-19 in that region, the BCI said, adding it has accepted the report and decided not to issue guidelines on its own on holding of examinations for intermediate semester or final semester.

While recommending that end-term examinations must be mandatorily conducted for intermediate and final year students, the panel permitted online, offline, blended, online open book exams, assessment-based evaluation or research papers as modes of evaluation.

The committee was set up after a large number of law students and heads of law schools wrote to the BCI for clarity and guidance and the issue of examinations.

Many students wanted alternate methods of assessment in view of Covid-19 situation.

Earlier, a group of students from Faculty of Law of Delhi University had moved the Delhi High Court demanding cancellation of fourth semester examinations. They had urged the committee to allow assignment-based assessment.