New Delhi: A disagreement has cropped up between the ministries of Law and Human Resource Development (HRD) regarding the control of legal education courses being run in 913 Colleges, 260 colleges and 14 National Law Schools across the nation.

The apex regulator for legal profession and education in India, the Bar Council of India (BCI) has objected to include legal education under the National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER).

Through the NCHER, the government aims to establish a super regulator, which would subsume existing regulatory bodies like National Council for Teachers Education (NCTE), University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to ensure transparency.

The bill tabled in the Rajya Sabha on December 27, 2012 states that the act shall apply to all the higher educational institutions and universities other than those engaged in agricultural education and research.

However, the law ministry expressed that to meet the emerging challenges of legal profession and education, a separate independent and specialized body should be set up.

After analyzing the NCHER, the BCI said that it is a serious matter and they consider it an encroachment on their powers. Ashok Parija, BCI chairman expressed that the HRD ministry should have taken them into confidence.

The HRD ministry reacted saying several law colleges were being run by the universities and excluding them from the ambit of the proposed council would defeat the purpose of having a uniform regulator for higher education.