Legal education in the country is set to get a facelift if the Bar Council of India (BCI) has its way. Taking note of the falling standards of legal education, the BCI has put forward a handful of suggestions?from market-oriented papers to integrated courses?thus leaving no stone unturned for a radical overhaul of the system.
The recommendations, the first ever such review in over a decade by the country?s apex body for lawyers and law institutes, have been forwarded to universities and state bar councils for feedback.
If accepted, students can specialise in any six market-oriented optional papers from laws on financial and capital market regulations, mergers and acquisitions, project and corporate finance, foreign trade, emigration, mining, intellectual property rights litigation, internet, air and space, forensics as well as laws on food processing, agriculture labour, agri-insurance, agri-marketing and agri-finance. This is besides the 18 compulsory papers and four clinical papers.
Another suggestion is for a new five-year double degree integrated course. A student opting for this can do a degree in arts, science, management, commerce, fine arts, management, engineering or medicine and complete their BA-LL.B or BSc-LL.B or B.Com-LL.B in five years instead of the present six, B.Tech-LL.B in six years instead of seven and MBBS-LL.B in seven years instead of eight. But the two courses have to be completed back-to-back without any break.
Lateral entry and exit are prohibited and no intermediary degree would be awarded if he/she drops out on completion of a single degree.
There would be a shift from the annual examination to a semester system with at least 30-hour input per week over a minimum of 15-week teaching in each semester in unitary course (just LL.B) and 18-week teaching in the integrated double-degree course. Students must have 70% attendance to take tests.
To discipline law colleges, the BCI has suggested surprise inspections. A diverse report could lead to withdrawal of approval. These inspections are in addition to regular inspections with advance notice.
The institutes should submit sources of funding, self-assessment reports, annual reports and returns to the BCI. The BCI would issue permanent identity cards to each student and faculty, which can be later used while giving identity certification to national and international bodies. To prevent fly-by-night operators, there would be emphasis on proper infrastructure.