Is law losing its lustre for students

Updated on: Monday, August 17, 2009

Offering its practitioners the chance to interact with society and understand the problems faced by people in their daily lives, the law has been a natural choice of profession for many political leaders in the country.

The legal profession also offers great scope for students interested in policies and programmes in such varied fields as environment, technology, healthcare, and education. As one aspiring law student says, the profession is not really affected by any economic downturn.

But the incidents of November last year when students clashed on the Chennai Dr. Ambedkar Government Law College campus, and other incidents involving lawyers of the Madras High Court and other courts created some confusion in the minds of students.

Rajan, a Class XII student in the science stream, says that he was initially interested in studying law. “But after all these events, I am not sure whether it will be advisable for me to join the highly politicised profession,” he says.

Ashok, a third-year law student, however, says that the political activity is part of campus life. “We have lecturers who are related to various political parties. It is natural to be politically active, but only half the students are involved in politics,” he says.

Undergoing suspension for his role in the November incidents, he says that he was attracted to the legal profession because of the close ties the profession has with politics and social service activities.

D. Gopal, registrar-in-charge, Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University, says that the incidents, though regrettable, have not really affected students’ choices this year. “We received 2,400 applications for the B.A. B.L programme last year, and the same number this year, though new age regulations were imposed,” he says. The first-ranked student in the admissions list for B.A.B.L (Hons.) scored over 99 per cent in her Class XII exam, he points out.

He says that the five-year B.A.B.L. (Hons.) for students from Class XII and the three-year B.A.B.L. (Hons.) for students with a bachelor’s degree offered by the TNDALU are intensive and have many more courses than their regular counterpart degrees offered by affiliated government law colleges. “We offer intensive training for the students selected for the Honours courses,” he says.

But compared to the standards in TNDALU, the standards of legal education in other law colleges in the State are low due to lack of infrastructure and qualified teachers, jurists say. Absence of discipline among students is rampant, they add.

The quality of legal education was brought out by the First Bench of the Madras High Court last year while dealing with a public interest litigation petition relating to the poor standards in the M.L. course in the law university itself. “In this State, the legal education is at a very low level in most of the colleges. This public interest litigation has drawn the attention of the court to this very vital aspect,” observed the (then) Chief Justice A.K. Ganguly and Justice K. Chandru.

Stating that it was very shocked and distressed to make the comment, the Bench directed the university vice-chancellor to depute a team of officials to assess the standards in the M.L course and taking of classes, setting of question papers and ultimately of conferring degrees.

There is much scope for improvement, provided the authorities concerned took a serious view of the situation prevailing in the law colleges. Problems pertaining to lack of infrastructure and absence of qualified teachers should be addressed immediately. Discrimination between students of the university and law colleges should go, says S. Prabakaran, president of the Tamil Nadu Advocates Association.

A sound education in law is an essential requisite to make a lawyer stand in good stead. Considering the present situation in the law colleges, the State government should act quickly to prevent further deterioration of standards in legal education, he explains.

Is law losing its lustre for students

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