Hope for civilian students to study at Army Law College in the future

PUNE: The newly-opened Army Law College (ALC) at Kanhe will earmark a few seats for civilian students as a part of its future expansion plan, said southern Army chief Lieutenant General D R Soni.
“Our priority, for now, is to ensure smooth functioning of the institute towards achieving progress before we go for an expansion plan. Some seats will then be reserved for civilian students too,” Lt Gen Soni, the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Army southern Command, told reporters on the sidelines of ALC’s inauguration on Monday.
At the moment, 60 children of serving and retired army personnel have been admitted to the first batch (2018-19) of a five-year integrated BBA, LLB course at the ALC, based on their score in the Maharashtra Common Entrance Test for Law.The ALC is affiliated to Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) and will commence academic work from Tuesday.
Lt Gen Manoj Pande, Chief of Staff at the southern Command HQ, is the patron of the ALC, while Madhushree Joshi, a gold medallist in law from SPPU, has taken charge as the first principal of the college.
The army plans to expand the ALC in three phases, during which new buildings, a sports complex and residential quarters will be completed by 2020. “Our endeavour is to provide best law education and make ALC one of the premier institutions in the country. We have appointed the best teaching faculty and are confident about achieving our targets,” Lt Gen Soni said.
The ALC is the second professional institution to be established in Pune under the Army Welfare Education Society, after the Army Institute of Technology (AIT) in Dighi. ALC has come up on property donated by Prem Daryanani, trustee of Radha Kaliandas Daryanani Charitable Trust, and comprises 12 buildings.
“Our objective behind donating the property was to convey the message that we need to respect our armed forces and owe them something as they sacrifice a lot while safeguarding our nation,” Daryanani said.
Justice D G Karnik (retd), a former Bombay high court judge, Lt Gen Pande, senior army officers, veterans, college faculty members and students from the first batch were present on the occasion.