MUMBAI: Law aspirants welcomed the SC decision to stay a notification issued by the Bar Council of India (BCI) imposing an age limit for law entrance tests. Many claimed that the decision to restrict the age was arbitrary and denied opportunity to aspirants. While the next hearing is in July , there will be no age bar on admissions this year across courses–three-year and five-year integrated programmes.
“The SC stay is a welcome step as there should not be any age limit for education, because learning never stops and law programme is useful in daily life too. The fact that even senior bureaucrats sign up for the law programme after retirement speaks for itself,” said Ashutosh Paibhale (34), the state law-CET topper in 2016, who was admitted to Government Law College on provisional basis as he did not meet the age criteria. ” Aspirants can seek admission to law courses at any age this year. The BCI decision regarding age limit was arbitrary and without application of mind,” said director, University of Mumbai Law Academy , Ashok Yende. “It is a huge relief and victory for law students, for justice, an for fundamental rights guaranteed by our Constitution. An age bar on legal education, in a society and country which needs far more awareness of legal rights, had no empirical or cogent basis . We need to produce more lawyers based on their merits, not restrict their numbers based on their age,” Shouvik Roy (56), a law student from Jitendra Chauhan College of Law and a co-petitioner of a writ filed in Bombay HC. The court had also restrained the state from cancelling admissions of such students after a few of them petitioned.
Former Mumbai University vice-chancellor, Rajan Welukar, said when people all over the world are talking about lifelong learning, there is no point in putting such age restrictions.