TN draws up norms for private law colleges

COIMBATORE: The State Government has drawn up norms and conditions for granting No Objective Certificate (NOC) to establish self-financing private law colleges in the State.The norms mandate that the proposed law colleges must be located at a place where there is a District and Sessions Court, so as to enable the students to attend court as part of their practical training course of their study.  “The proposed location shall not be near a dumping yard or a large quarry or an open prison or factories or distilleries,” an order issued by the State Law Department said.Presently, the State has a lone private law college in Salem. Besides, two deemed universities — SASTRA in Thanjavur and Saveetha near Chennai — have their own School of Law. As per the norms, applicants seeking to open private law colleges should apply to the Director of Legal Studies along with a fee of `25,000. “On receipt of the application, the Director of Legal Studies shall scrutinise the same, undertake inspection of the place of the proposed location and submit a report along with his recommendations to the Government,” the order said. Any trust or society which seeks to start a new law college should have five acres of land either on freehold or leasehold for a minimum period of 10 years if the institution is to come up within Municipal Corporation limits. In case it is established outside the Corporation, then the campus should be spread across 10 acres or more. Besides, the trust or society would be mandated to produce either a bank guarantee for a period of five years to the tune of `20 lakh or a solvency certificate for a similar sum obtained from a competent revenue authority. An endowment for Rs 30 lakh should be created and the amount invested in a nationalised bank or Government undertaking. Similarly, the teacher-student ratio in the institution should not be lesser than 1:40. The Government has mandated that the library should have reading space for at least 20 per cent of the students on the campus. The order also stated that  provision for Internet must be also be made.