GLC Mumbai, Dozens of Law Colleges Left Out of Maharashtra Admission Round, Students Face Fewer Choices

 

Thousands of law aspirants in Maharashtra are facing uncertainty in the 2026 admission process after Government Law College (GLC), Mumbai, and dozens of other law colleges were excluded from the first round of the Centralised Admission Process (CAP) because of pending mandatory approvals.

The exclusion of GLC, one of Maharashtra's oldest and most sought-after law colleges, is particularly significant for high-scoring candidates who would ordinarily have placed it at the top of their preference list.

Under the existing CAP rules, students who are allotted the college listed as their first preference are required to accept the seat. If they reject it, they are automatically excluded from the admission process.

With GLC unavailable in the opening round, students who would have ranked the college first must now choose another institution as their top preference. If that college is allotted, they may have to accept it, potentially leaving them unable to compete for GLC in a later round.

Nearly half of law colleges excluded

The disruption extends well beyond GLC Mumbai. Several Mumbai University-affiliated law colleges have also been kept out of the first CAP round after failing to secure mandatory approvals.

Data available with the Directorate of Higher Education (DHE) as of August 5 showed that only 102 colleges offering the three-year LLB programme, with a combined intake of 10,105 seats, had been cleared for the first round.

For the five-year integrated LLB programme, only 66 colleges, offering 5,955 seats, had been approved.

The limited number of participating colleges is significant given the number of applicants. Nearly 54,000 candidates have applied for the three-year LLB programme, while around 20,000 students are competing for five-year law courses.

Why is GLC Mumbai out?

Sources said GLC was excluded because it had not paid the mandatory fee to the Bar Council of India (BCI), a requirement for obtaining the approval needed to participate in the admission process.

The college has reportedly since paid the required fee. Once the necessary approval is received, GLC is expected to join the admission process from Round 2.

Several other Mumbai University-affiliated law colleges are also awaiting BCI approvals.

However, BCI approval is not the only issue. The University of Mumbai has reportedly raised concerns about compliance with mandatory staffing requirements at several institutions, including the appointment of qualified principals and adequate full-time faculty.

Until these deficiencies are addressed and the necessary approvals obtained, the affected colleges may remain outside the CAP process.

Students may get option to revise preferences

There could be some relief for candidates. A law college principal said that a few additional colleges could be added after a court hearing.

Under the current admission schedule, students submit their college preferences before the first two CAP rounds. However, sources said the CET Cell has approached the state government seeking permission for students to revise and resubmit their option forms before the second round after additional colleges are included.

A similar opportunity could also be considered before the third round if more institutions receive approvals.

Such a change would prevent students from being locked into preferences they made when prominent colleges, including GLC Mumbai, were unavailable.

The disruption has triggered criticism from students and legal professionals, who have questioned why regulatory and compliance issues were not resolved before the admission process began.

Lawyer Megha Yadav described the situation as a systemic compliance failure, arguing that students who worked hard to secure high CET percentiles are now facing uncertainty over seats, schedules and institutional credibility.

With thousands of aspirants competing for a limited number of available seats, the inclusion of additional colleges and flexibility in preference submission could become crucial to ensuring a fairer admission process.