Student denied from practising law in Canada after confusion over BCI approval of law college

“I completed my law degree in 2015 and subsequently obtained my certificate of practice from BCI in the same year. For some personal reasons I shifted to Canada with the confidence that I can continue working here by obtaining a required certificate from an equivalent local authority,” said Randhawa who was surprised her application was denied.

It stated, “You commenced your studies in 2010 and according to the publicly available list of approved programs provided by the BCI, approval of the University of Mumbai, MGM Law College expired with intake 2008/2009. While you graduated with a Bachelor of Laws, you were not awarded a Qualifying Law Degree recognized by the BCI.”

After receiving this letter in February, Randhawa approached BCI. “I did not receive a response from BCI. But MGM Law college is missing from the list of approved colleges by BCI. When I approached college, I was told that it is impossible because they have been paying the approval renewal fee, regularly,” she said, adding that this is a serious concern for all who graduated from MGM College during that period.

Unaware of the fact that their name is not under the list of approved colleges by BCI, the college administration has now swung into action. According to BCI, the college’s last approval was subject to submission of a compliance report on recommendations by the inspection committee from the year 2013, including the requirement of a separate building for the law college.

Principal of the college, Sheela Hosnani, said, “We have been paying the renewal fee without fail. But BCI never came for inspection. And now this information has surfaced. Submitting a compliance report will now be our priority.” Hosnani also said that she took over as principal only a year ago and was not aware of this issue.

Meanwhile, BCI has reasoned that Randhawa was awarded certificate of practice even as the college was not in the list of approved institutions, because BCI Maharashtra awards certificates on the basis of university and not college. Member of BCI Maharashtra, Ashish Deshmukh said, “The certificate of practice was on the basis of the degree from Mumbai University, which is a recognised body. This demands further streamlining of the process and now we will also ask for names of colleges from respective applicants.”