Udaipur, July 28, 2025 – In a significant development relating to the quality of legal education, the Bar Council of India (BCI) has allegedly suspended Anushka Law College of Udaipur and 10 other law colleges across the country. The suspension, in effect from 2025 until further orders, follows surprise inspections where non-compliance with stipulated norms and serious irregularities were found to exist.

Earlier, on June 28, 2025, the BCI had released a directive strictly banning postgraduate law programmes like LL.M. from being imparted in online, distance, blended, or hybrid modes in absence of its prior permission.

This order came after a letter on June 25, 2025, from Justice Rajendra Menon, Co-Chairman of Standing Committee on Legal Education of the BCI, addressed to the Registrars General of the Supreme Court and High Courts. The letter had expressed serious alarm regarding institutions — some of the National Law Universities and private colleges — operating LL.M. (Professional), Executive LL.M., and other law courses without BCI sanction.

The order also states "Such programs were discovered to be running through weekend sessions, online modules, and blended versions, usually with optional academic presence or even needing just a minimum law degree (LL.B.) to become a student".

These practices contravene the Advocates Act, 1961, the Legal Education Rules of 2008 and 2020 of the BCI and Supreme Court judgments in *Vinit Garg v. UGC* and *Odisha Lift Irrigation Corporation v. Patro*, which ban awarding professional degrees online or through distance mode without sanction of the concerned statutory authority, the order further says.

Under the Supreme Court's order, a special High-Level Surprise Investigation and Monitoring Committee was formed to inspect law colleges and institutions in India. The inspections conducted by the committee revealed 11 institutions not meeting the necessary educational standards.

Responding thereto, the Bar Council of India has reportedly suspended these 11 institutions until further orders. Two of the 11 suspended law colleges are based in Rajasthan — one of which is active in Udaipur.