New Delhi: Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry, after a Round Table on Legal Education, has come to the conclusion that the two-year Masters of Laws (LLM) course should be shortened to half. HRD’s proposal gained consent of all the legal luminaries, who agreed to the fact two-year programme served no purpose. However, the final decision rests upon all the stakeholders.
The Round Table, through the 'Professional-Public-Private-Partnership' model, has also decided to set up a national-level research institution over the next three years. The proposal is yet to get the nod of the Planning Commission, due to which it is still in the burgeoning stage, even after the suggestion of the National Knowledge Commission (NKC). By the year 2020, a seven-member committee, including two legal luminaries from the overseas, is deemed to set up in order to identify the challenges in legal education.
Further, the Round Table has decided to renew the proposal to work towards a model research institution, allowing a complete study in the emerging area of legal jurisprudence and subjects, which need research like environment law, patent law and competition law. This brief could well be handed over to the proposed institution, since India has no mechanism for impact analysis of judgments. Moreover, the members of the Round Table, aware of the reservations expressed by the Bar Council of India, are exploring ways to introduce legal education at the undergraduate level, without affecting the LL.B programme. The plan also mentions the introduction of a new course for para-legals, of one-year duration.
