Plea to review duration of law courses: SC bats for expert body on legal education

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said there should be an expert body on legal education while terming as "important" the issue raised in a plea seeking setting up of an education commission to review the curriculum and duration of law courses.

"This is an era of expert bodies and there should be an expert body on legal education," a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana said.

"This is an important issue and the Union of India has an important role in this. They should come out with something," the bench observed.

The top court was hearing a plea filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay.

The plea said that the New Education Policy 2020 promotes four-year graduation courses in all professional and academic courses but the Bar Council of India has not taken appropriate steps to review the existing syllabus, curriculum and the duration of the Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and Master of Laws (LLM) courses.

It said the five-year duration of the BA-LLB and BBA-LLB courses was "disproportionate to the course material" and the long duration put an excessive financial burden on the students and their families.

It has sought a direction to the Centre to set up a legal education commission or an expert committee consisting eminent educationists, jurists, retired judges, advocates and professors to review the syllabus, curriculum and the duration of the LLB and LLM courses.

The plea claimed that the lengthy, exorbitant course was "disincentivising students from pursuing law".