The Bar Council of India (BCI), the nation’s apex regulator for legal education, mandated immediate implementation of biometric attendance and criminal background checks for students in law education institutes on Tuesday.
In a letter to all vice-chancellors, deans, faculty, and law students, the regulator asked centres of legal education (CLEs) to verify whether students work while studying and install CCTV cameras on the premises.
The BCI said, in a statement, that it issued the notification in response to judicial observations about the need to monitor law students’ antecedents and backgrounds and ensure transparency and accountability in attendance and student conduct.
“All CLEs are required to install biometric attendance systems to ensure accurate student attendance monitoring. Furthermore, CCTV cameras must be installed in classrooms and other key areas of the institution. The recordings from these cameras must be preserved for a period of one year to support any necessary…