Floating status leaves law students at sea in Mumbai

As aspiring candidates fill forms for colleges, the constantly changing approval status within three categories, has wreaked mayhem on their first preference college

Chaos reigns supreme as students struggle to fill out their law college applications due to the ever-changing status of their preferred colleges' approval status. Last week, after the final list of law colleges was released by the state, students discovered that the colleges were categorised based on the status of their approval. Red zone implies lack of compliance with regulation; yellow zone indicates approval pending for want of fine; and white zone means full clearance and approval.

Constantly updating status
To add to the confusion, students now complain that as the statuses were fluid, they kept changing even as they were filling the forms and it has led to them missing out on colleges of their choice. One of the candidates, Rupali Gaikwad, said, "I skipped Siddharth Law College in my form because it appeared in the yellow category. But then, the status changed in a couple of days, and it was in the white zone. Thankfully, I had not yet submitted the form, so I could add that college to my list. However, now after submitting, I have discovered that they are suddenly in the yellow category. And this is just one such example."

Vishal Mane, another aspiring lawyer, said, "Already there is this delay in admissions and now there is this confusion. Why couldn't this be done beforehand so that admissions are not affected? These last moment changes are adding to the chaos."

Sachin Pawar, President of Law Students' Council, said, "It was really stupid of them to declare the list of colleges like that. Instead, they could have given deadline to colleges to comply with regulations and pay fine, so that a final list of approved colleges could have been declared. This floating status of approval has confused candidates to no end and they are missing out the college of their choice."

Officials say
However, an official from the Bar Council of India justified the move and said, "We declared the list in the given format as there was no other way. State government brought us in the process too late and suddenly we were expected to scrutinise all law colleges. So we declared the list in the current format so that students can at least begin the application process."

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