The Bar Council of India wants law colleges to check the backgrounds of students aspiring for legal studies to check for criminal antecedents. In the wake of a PIL before the Bombay High Court seeking to make attendance compulsory for students in law colleges, BCI has issued a slew of guidelines to law colleges and universities.

The BCI circular envisages introducing several new measures aimed at fostering transparency and ethical standards in law colleges. In addition to checking background of aspiring students, BCI also wants law colleges to ensure students make declarations regarding simultaneous degree and/or regular academic programmes, employment status and attendance compliance. Besides, the law colleges have to make use of biometric systems for attendance and install CCTV cameras, etc. This circular is being seen as a knee-jerk reaction by BCI in response to a writ petition filed by a law associate professor in HC.