The first day of the institutional round of admissions to law colleges saw city students and their parents scrambling to fill out and submit forms in as many colleges as possible.
Admissions to the law course this year have been hugely delayed, as multiple court cases stalled the admission process. This is also the first year when the state has conducted the Common Entrance Examination (CET) exams with centralised admissions being carried out by the state government.
A large number of vacant seats still remain. At the end of Round IV of the admission process, 6,698 seats of the total 15,200 seats in three-year Bachelor of Law course (LLB-3), and 6,788 seats of the total 10, 320 seats in the five year LLB course (LLB-5) were vacant, according to the commissioner of the CET Cell, Chandrashekhar Oak.
The Maharashtra government has now allowed aspirants to law schools to seek admissions individually at colleges to fill up these seats. To display a merit-based, transparent admission process, colleges will accept individual applications from November 2–5, put out a fresh merit list on November 5 at 5 pm, and admit students from November 8–9. This process is being followed as a large number of law seats continue to be vacant despite five rounds of the centralised admission process conducted online by the Common Entrance Test Cell of the state government.
For students and their parents, this has meant stress and a lot of running around.
Said one harried parent, “I personally visited five colleges in Mumbai right from Mumbai University in Fort to Mithibai in Vile Parle and even Kandivali Education Society at Kandivli today to seek admission for my daughter.” But, he said, distraught, the Government Law College refused to accept admissions forms without citing any reason, and asked them to come again the next day. “A large number of meritorious students from open category in Maharashtra have not yet managed to get admissions so far. But, surprisingly students from outside Maharashtra seem to have easily managed admissions in many institutions. The government must step in and ensure justice for its own domicile students.”
Ravindra Waikar, Maharashtra’s minister of state for higher and technical education, says that he will try and get admissions for as many students as possible. “Students can approach the individual institutes, apply and take up admissions if there are vacant seats there. All students who seek to do law and who have given their CET should be granted admission and the seats will be filled up. We are expected to complete the admission process by November 10 and we are confident that we should be able to complete the process by then.”
With a writ petition pending in court on the age-limit issue, the state has decided to allow admissions to over-age students after taking an undertaking from them that their admission would be subject to the pending decision of the court on that matter. Mr. Waikar felt that the setting of an age-limit to study law was a major hindrance for many people taking up the course: “I believe that law is not just any professional course, but also a course that people need to study for their own knowledge. Hence, the age limit criteria set by the Bar Council of India for learning law is not right. I have already written to the Union Law ministry, but unfortunately the age limit could not be relaxed in this year’s admission process.”
Narayan Rajyadaksha, principal of New Law College in Mumbai said one of the reasons for the huge number of vacant seats was choosing of wrong options by the students. “Most of the students tend to opt for the same set of colleges,” he said, “with the result that they are left with no seats when seats in those particular colleges are filled up. Students hardly research their options and tend to apply only by looking at the college website. Seats in colleges from cities like Mumbai, Pune or Aurangabad are filled up, but a huge number of seats continue to be vacant in the interiors of Maharashtra.”
According to a senior education professional who asked not to be named, “Since this was the first year for every one, including students, colleges and even the government, hence the teething problems. The government should have set up a standard operating Procedure to facilitate easier online admission process. Once everyone gets the hang of the new system, everything will settle down.”
