From Our Correspondent
TURA: The Tura Bar Association has unanimously resolved to abstain from work on July 11and 12 to oppose the controversial Higher Education and Research Bill, 2011.
Informing this here on Thursday, Tura Bar Association Joint Secretary Brilliant Sangma said the Association took this decision in a meeting held on Wednesday.
The Association felt that the controversial bill is designed to curtail the autonomous status of the Bar Council.
Sangma felt that the new Bill tends to “hand over the nation’s entire education system to the government’s selected few millionaires and foreigners.”
The Higher Education and Research Bill, 2011 was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on December 28, 2011 by the Minister of Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal.
The Bill seeks to establish the National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) to facilitate determination and maintenance of standards of higher education and research in all areas except agricultural education.
The University Grants Commission Act, 1956; the All India Council for Technical Education Act, 1987; and the National Council for Teacher Education Act, 1993 shall be repealed within a year of this Act coming into force.
“Sibal is adamant to weaken the statutory bodies of lawyers by attempting to encroach upon the functions of the Bar Councils,” said Sangma.
Sangma stated that the Bar Association had resolved to demand the Central Government for the exclusion of legal education from the purview of the Bill and the National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for Higher Educations among other demands.
It may be mentioned that the Bar Council of India (BCI) held a nation wide protest on January 20, to oppose “tooth and nail” inclusion of legal education in the Bill.
Ashok K Parija, the Chairman of BCI, recently said the provision for inclusion of legal education in the bill “usurps” the powers of the regulatory body for legal education.