KATHMANDU, MARCH 30

The Supreme Court has issued a directive order to Attorney General, who is the Chair of Nepal Bar Council, to take initiatives to bring reforms in all the processes of legal education, enrolment, recruitment, entrance exam, fee structures and other such issues in consonance with the objectives of the constitution.

The directive order was passed by a division bench of Acting Chief Justice Deepak Kumar Karki and Justice Hari Prasad Phuyal in response to a writ petition filed by Yagyamani Neupane, and others versus the Prime Minister Tribhuvan University and others.

The apex court also ordered the AG to take initiatives to bring reforms in legal education sector in a way that meets the national need and provide students education on par with international standards.

The bench quashed the petitioners' writ saying that it would be inappropriate to prevent students from pursuing their studies as they had already completed two thirds of their studies. The bench ordered the concerned agencies to carry out single entrance exam for those students that want to enroll for LLB course so that all universities will have the same entrance questions. It ordered the Higher Secondary Examination Board to make sure that only those students that obtain grade C or above can pursue law study in 10+ 2 course.

It ordered the defendants to start one education system – annual or semester or any other types of system in all law colleges and universities. It ordered Vice Chancellor of Tribhuvan University to develop Nepal Law College as a specialized academic institution.

The petitioners have argued that Nepal Law College where is an LLB student was enrolling unlimited number of students in bachelor and master's degree law course as result classrooms were becoming overcrowded. They argued that Nepal Law College which had the quota for 500 students in LLB course, enrolled 10,858 students in 2074/75 fiscal (2017/18) academic year.

Stating that many students were not able to study in class room due to overcrowding and lack of infrastructure, the petitioners said Nepal Bar Council- the regulatory body- had not done anything to address this issue. They had urged the court to issue a writ of mandamus to Nepal Law College to enroll only the number of students that are permitted by the concerned agency. The directive order issued by the division bench of Justice Karki and Phuyal on March 17 but the full texts of the order was prepared today.