Plea against Madras varsity law course in distance mode

The Madras High Court has been moved seeking to restrain the University of Madras (UoM) and head of the Department of Legal Studies from offering ML (Private Study) courses from 2021-22 academic year, contending that it was against the spirit of a High Court order.

The petitioner, B Ramkumar Adityan, sought for an interim stay on the admission notification and admitting students. He contended that while disposing a batch of writ petitions, the High Court had held that students who studied their PG degree in law through private study mode in the university or under distance education mode in the Annamalai University were not eligible for appointment to the post of law teachers.

Further, the petitioner said in his PIL that the court had made it amply clear that candidates who had undergone the regular courses of law, both in bachelor and master degree levels and attended colleges or universities, alone were eligible. Those with PG obtained through other schemes, either correspondence or private or any other method that is not in consonance with the regular scheme, could not be considered for appointment as law teachers.

“Therefore, studying and conducting law course under private study mode has only led to litigations and several problems for the students conferred with such degrees,” the petitioner said.

He also noted that the courses being offered without any recognition from the Bar Council of India rendered such qualification dubious, ultimately affecting the students who obtained such degrees with the fond hope of building a career in law.

The petitioner sought an interim stay on the admission notification and admitting students