Bombay HC Orders BCI to Clear Law College Approvals by 6 August to Save CAP Round 1 Admissions

Four law colleges, shut out of CAP Round 1 despite complying with the court's 30 July directions, won emergency timelines from Bombay HC requiring BCI, DHE, and the State CET Cell to act within 48 hours.

A Division Bench of the Bombay High Court, comprising Justice R. I. Chagla and Justice Farhan P. Dubash, passed an urgent order on 5 August 2026 directing the Bar Council of India to scrutinise and, if applications were found in order, grant approvals to four petitioner law colleges no later than 6 August 2026. The colleges had complied with an earlier court direction dated 30 July 2026 but remained absent from the State CET Cell's list of approved colleges, leaving them unable to participate in CAP Round 1 admissions at the very moment that the College Option Form Filling window — running from 5 to 7 August 2026 — was open. The bench also directed the Directorate of Higher Education, Pune and the State CET Cell to act in sequence, with the CET Cell ultimately extending the option form filling period to 9 August 2026 to protect prospective students at those colleges.

What the 30 July 2026 Order Had Required

The four writ petitions before the court on 5 August 2026 — Writ Petition Nos. 9658, 9629, 9682, and 10095 of 2026 — arose from a larger batch of writ petitions heard by the same bench on 30 July 2026. In that earlier order, the court had directed the University of Mumbai to forthwith issue a conditional affiliation certificate to each college provided it paid the requisite penalty amount to the University. The court had further directed that if a college then uploaded that conditional affiliation certificate, along with prescribed documentation and fees, on the BCI portal on or before 31 July 2026 — the last date set by the BCI for such applications — the BCI was to accept that certificate as compliance with the relevant provision requiring submission of a university affiliation certificate.

The BCI had, by a communication dated 13 July 2026, granted a final opportunity to all existing centres of legal education to submit and complete applications for extension or renewal of approval for existing law courses and sanctioned sections, extending the deadline to 31 July 2026.

All four colleges met these conditions. They uploaded the conditional affiliation certificate together with the other necessary documentation on the BCI portal on or before 31 July 2026 and paid the necessary fees.

Why the Colleges Returned to Court

Despite full compliance, the BCI had not yet scrutinised their documents or granted approvals by 5 August 2026. The practical consequence was immediate: the State CET Cell had notified the Schedule of Admissions for CAP Round 1, fixing the College Option Form Filling window from 5 to 7 August 2026. Because BCI approval was still pending, the colleges' names did not appear in the CET Cell's list of approved colleges. They could not participate in the CAP Round 1 process at all.

Counsel for the petitioners mentioned the matters in the morning session on 5 August 2026, seeking urgent interim or ad-interim reliefs in the afternoon session. The bench heard counsel for all parties in the afternoon and, before passing orders, kept the matter back until 5:00 pm, requesting Mr. Rui Rodrigues, counsel for Respondent Nos. 1 and 3, to obtain instructions from the State CET Cell, and making a similar request to Mr. Prasad Gajbhiye, counsel for the BCI.

The BCI's Position and the Court's Reasoning

When the matter was called at 5:00 pm, Mr. Rodrigues returned with what the bench described as “favourable instructions from the State CET Cell.” The BCI's position was less accommodating: Mr. Gajbhiye informed the bench that the BCI would need at least a week more for three of the four colleges and a couple of days for the fourth, because the scrutiny exercise involved perusal of various documents and permissions, including those from previous years.

The bench acknowledged that the scrutiny process takes time but pointed to the specific facts before it. The colleges had complied with the 30 July 2026 directions of the court and had met the BCI's own 31 July 2026 deadline. If BCI approval was not given in time for the colleges to be included in the CAP Round 1 list, the colleges would be unable to participate in that round through no fault of their own. The bench found that this would result in grave and irreparable loss to them.

The bench therefore framed a tightly sequenced set of directions binding the BCI, the Directorate of Higher Education, Pune, and the State CET Cell to act within defined windows.

Directions Issued

The court's order of 5 August 2026 set out the following steps:

The BCI was directed to forthwith scrutinise and process the applications of the four petitioner colleges as expeditiously as possible and, if the applications were found in order, to grant the necessary approvals no later than 6 August 2026.

Upon such approvals being granted, the four colleges were directed to upload the approvals immediately through their online login IDs. The Directorate of Higher Education, Pune was then directed to verify those approvals and grant its own approval, no later than 7 August 2026.

By 7 August 2026, the DHE was also directed to include the names of the newly approved colleges, along with their latest approved intake capacity, in its Approved List so that the State CET Cell could fetch the updated data on its official portal.

If those steps were completed, the State CET Cell was directed to extend the last date for College Option Form Filling by two days — to 9 August 2026 — so that students could exercise preferences for the newly listed colleges.

The four writ petitions were listed for compliance on 7 August 2026.

Separate Directions in Connected Petitions

The 5 August 2026 order also disposed of interim directions in six other connected writ petitions from the same batch.

In Writ Petition Nos. 9683 and 9628 of 2026, the bench allowed the petitioners to file an affidavit placing on record documentary evidence that on 31 July 2026 they had attempted, but failed through a technical glitch on the BCI portal, to make payment of the late fees along with their application and supporting documents. The affidavit was to be filed by 6 August 2026, and those two petitions were placed on the Supplementary Board for that date.

Writ Petition No. 9445 of 2026 was stood over to 6 August 2026.

Writ Petition Nos. 9684, 9627, and 9681 of 2026 were stood over to 7 August 2026.

Outcome

The Division Bench passed a conditional but time-bound order on 5 August 2026, directing BCI approval by 6 August, DHE verification and list-update by 7 August, and extension of the College Option Form Filling window to 9 August, subject to the prior steps being completed. The four primary writ petitions — Writ Petition Nos. 9658, 9629, 9682, and 10095 of 2026 — were listed for compliance on 7 August 2026. The connected petitions were assigned to separate dates depending on the nature of the outstanding step in each case.