Bar to bar new bars

Legal luminaries yesterday observed that the proposed amendments which are to be brought in respect of Law College entrance by the Incorporated Council of Education (ICLE) would be detrimental and hinder the further education of local students registered with foreign universities.

According to the proposed amendments a special entrance examination would be held for LLB graduates by recognised foreign universities and Kotalawala Defence Academy which they said was an “unrecognised Sri Lankan university” on “combined law and a language”.

Aspiring students would be eligible to sit the entrance exam only twice.

They said as per the proposed amendments Law Degree holders of foreign Universities and from Kotalawala Defence Academy would have to spend almost eight years to pass out as an Attorney-at-Law as they would be required to stay at college for three years.

The Executive Committee of the Bar Association Sri Lanka, (BASL) said that they had unanimously decided to object the new amendment.

The new amendments will further limit the number of new entrants to the college. The general number of students that can be admitted to College is 225 per batch.

But contrary to this in 2014 this was reduced to 175. A legal expert who wished to remain unnamed said this would limit the number of foreign graduates to 55.

“If the number of students that are admitted to the college is 225, the number of foreign students that can be admitted will be 55. But if the number of students is restricted to 175 as in 2014, the number of foreign graduates that are admitted will be reduced to 44,” he said.

A high profile official of the BASL said only 25 per cent of LLB graduates would be able to enrol and the rest 25 per cent would consist of students after Advanced Level who enter through a competitive exam.

“This is absurd, as students who graduate from foreign universities will have to write a competitive exam and even there, a limited number will be enrolled. But prominence is given to students who enter soon after their Advanced Levels,” he said.

Approximately there are around 200 LLB graduates seek the entrance of the Law College. The new regulation will largely affect them.

It is learnt that a group of students and parents met with the President last Friday. The sources state that the President had expressed his dismay towards the unruly decision of the Legal Council.

The ICLE comprises Chief Justice Mohan Pieris, Justices S. Sripavan, Haleem Marsoof, Attorney General Palitha Fernando, Secretary to the Ministry of Justice Kamalini de Silva, Solicitor Yuvanjan Wijayatilleke, Presidents’ Counsels  Palitha Kumarasinghe, Nigel Hacht, Manohara de Silva, S. Selvakandan also President of BASL and Secretary to BASL Ajith Pathirana.