More takers for 5-year law course, despite delayed admissions this yr

MUMBAI: Admissions to law colleges in the state ended in the last week of April and surprisingly, five-year law courses have witnessed a dip in seat vacancies this year. Information shared by the state common entrance test (CET) cell showed how 6,864 of the total 10,440 available seats in state law colleges for the five-year LLB course were taken this year (only 34.25% seats vacant).

This is much better than the past few years, when the seat vacancies were between 48% to 60%.

“Every year after admissions end, we [law colleges] witness a lot of shuffling among students who end up withdrawing admission from one institute and applying to another. This year since the entire process was delayed and extended over a period of two and a half months, students are not withdrawing admissions and this could have resulted in more admissions,” said the principal of a suburban law college.

Nearly 16,200 students had appeared for the state entrance exam for the five-year law course in October 2020. Admissions to most professional courses, however, were delayed this year and law was the worst affected. Admissions that started only in January 2020 were marred by several errors, eventually extending the admissions process till April this year. While there is excitement among stakeholders to witness increase in admissions at law colleges, many feel the number is still very low compared to the registrations received this year.

“If 16,000 students cleared the law entrance exam, how did only 6,800 confirm seats? Obviously, the delay in admissions pushed more students to opt for seats in neighbouring states where admissions were conducted without much delay,” said Sachin Pawar, president of the student law council. He added that the state’s decision to keep extending law admissions dates has cost several aspirants their future.

Last month, state minister for higher and technical education, Uday Samant, called for additional admission rounds for the three-year law course where over 767 seats remained vacant after online and offline admission rounds. These additional rounds were conducted by the state CET cell between April 23 and 29, but the final data on vacant seats in the three-year law course has not yet been made available by the admissions body.

Despite verbal assurances by Samant, giving first-year law students and colleges extra time to complete their curriculum for the current academic year, students are worried if colleges will manage to complete the curriculum, even with extra time. “Instead of nine-10 months that colleges usually get to complete the entire year’s portion, our batch will get four or five months, if we are lucky. We are fearing the exams because in most cases, colleges have only now started online lectures for the first-year batch,” said Ashutosh Sairam, a first-year LLB student.