New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice on a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking the formation of a legal education commission to review the syllabus, curriculum, and duration of the LLB and LLM courses across the country.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi sought responses of the Centre, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the Bar Council of India (BCI), and the Law Commission to the petition questioning the 5-year integrated BA-LLB and BBA-LLB courses, calling them outdated, financially burdensome, and inconsistent with the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The writ petition filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay demanded the setting up of an expert panel comprising educationists, jurists, retired judges, advocates, and professors to review the syllabus, curriculum, and duration of law courses.
The PIL contended that the existing legal education framework — particularly the five-year law courses—violates the spirit of NEP 2020 by mandating the study of non-law subjects such as history, economics, sociology, and political science, thereby affecting the conceptual understanding of the core legal subjects.
The petitioner pointed out that while engineering degrees like B.Tech are completed in four years, legal courses consume five years, often forcing students, especially from economically weaker sections, to spend an extra year and bear additional costs.
“The aim of the NEP is to provide universal access to quality education and attract the best talent. On the contrary, poor students can’t even afford the exorbitant fee structure complemented by the lengthy 5-year tenure. The existing 5-year tenure is designed only for the affluent or the upper middle-class people,” stated the plea.
It added that law colleges charge full fees during internship periods despite playing no active role in facilitating them. “The fees should not be taken during internship months, as the colleges play absolutely no role in it. The student has to find the lawyer, pay for his/her own conveyance and pay the college as well,” the plea said.
(IANS)
