No entry for foreign lawyers, bar council tells government:

New Delhi: The Bar Council of India (BCI) has said no to the entry of foreign lawyers into the country but added that the decision is not final, the law ministry said on Tuesday.

"The Bar Council of India has decided not to permit foreign lawyers into India. The said decision, however, is being subjected to a more detailed and rational scrutiny in the light of the opinions and points of view of different stakeholders," said the ministry.

Quoting the country's apex statutory body, empowered to regulate legal education and profession, the ministry said the BCI has taken the decision in response to "numerous representations on the subject".

"The BCI, which is concerned with the safeguard the rights, privileges and interests of advocates, is committed to take steps which will benefit the Indian legal profession," the ministry said in a statement on the issue of entry of foreign law firms.

In another statement on the issue of opening of legal profession to British lawyers, the ministry said, "The BCI has informed that it perceive the Indian legal profession to be both service oriented as well as based on business principles."

"However, it is important to understand the legal profession in the Indian context," said the ministry, quoting the BCI.

"At the same time, Indian lawyers are not averse to self-upgradation and skill acquisition. Once the process of legal reform is initiated, the profession could be stated to be in some readiness to the opening up of the legal sector," it added, again quoting the BCI's ambivalent views on the sensitive issue.

"This is a matter which is to be considered by the BCI, which is presently laying a clear road map for the purpose of ensuring legal reforms so that even the entry of foreign lawyers would cause no serious concern," the ministry said. IANS

CLAT 2011 Emphasis More on Current Affairs:

Bangalore: The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2011 lays more emphasis on current affairs, rather than on general knowledge. The CLAT committee plans to highlight more on some sections of the question paper. The CLAT 2011 is scheduled to be held on May 15, 2011.

M P Singh, Vice Chancellor, The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, told that they want to test students’ knowledge on current affairs than just on some standard facts and figures. He said that there might be exclusion of legal knowledge, so, as to give importance to sections like legal aptitude, critical and logical reasoning.

Mr Singh informed, however, the components of the question paper will remain the same as that of last year. He said that the components of the question paper include English, General Knowledge, Legal Law, Logical Reasoning and Maths. He added that instead of legal law, focus will be on legal aptitude. He mentioned that that they want to test the students’ analytical ability and not knowledge alone.

The CLAT 2011 will be two-hour question paper with 200 questions. CLAT scores are used for admissions into national law schools across the country. Non-law schools can use CLAT scores after obtaining due authorization from the CLAT committee.

ALL INDIA BAR EXAM 2010:

Registration for the All India Bar Examination (forms available at all State Bar Councils) : July 15 – September 30, 2010

Despatch of Preparatory Materials to advocates appearing for the All-India Bar Examination on : December5,2010 ;August 16, 2010;first week of October, 2010

Model Test Papers available on the B.C.I. website : August 16, 2010 onwards

Publication of list of candidates and examination centres on the B.C.I. website : November 1, 2010

Date of the first All India Bar Examination : December 5, 2010

Declaration of results of First All india Examination : By December 31, 2010

Bi-annual examinations held from : 2011 In April and November every year

IGNOU to open study centres in six European countries:

New Delhi: The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), the largest in the world, will open study centres in six European nations, including Germany and France, to offer personalized courses, its Vice Chancellor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai has said.

"We will open our centre in Paris next month. Negotiation is going on with Germany. I hope we will start in Germany by the end of this year. Our target is to open five-six centres in Europe by July 2011," Pillai told the sources.

The Netherlands and Austria are other European countries where IGNOU, the world's largest by student enrollment, is considering to open study centres. It already has a centre in London, the vice chancellor added.

Pillai, who also heads the government's Distance Education Council, said IGNOU would also offer personalized courses in Gandhian studies and some Indian languages such as Sanskrit through its new study centres in Europe, besides the regular courses.

"We are in discussion with several institutes in the US, Australia and Europe to develop personalized courses. It will be done keeping in mind the needs of partner institutes," he said, adding IGNOU's low course fee was hindrance in forging accords overseas.

"Our fee is quite low when you compare it with what is charged by universities in the developed countries. We are planning to restructure the fees for courses offered outside India," Pillai said.

IGNOU has presence in 35 countries through 56 study centres. Over 42,000 students are enrolled at its overseas centres. More than 90 percent of them are the people of India origin.

The vice chancellor said student enrolments at the university have almost trebled in the last four years.

"Now we have 3.2 million active enrollments. It was 1.1 million in 2006. This indicates increasing popularity of distance education," said Pillai, adding theuniversity targets to sustain over 25 percent annual growth in enrollments in the coming years.

IGNOU courses were also becoming increasingly popular in Africa and the Gulf region that has a large strength of India expatriates. "Many African universities have approached us for collaboration. We will help in designing course and study materials."

He said IGNOU will also introduce e-books within six months to increase the popularity of its courses among high-tech students. "We will start with management and IT and gradually introduce it for all the courses. It is cost effective and user friendly."

The university also plans to introduce video-conferencing facilities for all its 56 overseas study centres within a few months. IANS