HRD for reforms in law education

Updated on: Tuesday, September 29, 2009

New Delhi: Strongly advocating re-hauling of legal education to improve quality, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal has asked Bar Council of India (BCI) to come on board for
augmenting reforms and recommended starting of combined degree courses in law and other professional streams.

' It is often, that the lawyers have no knowledge of engineering and engineers do not know law. So, my idea is, why we should not introduce within the system, a two-year engineering and two-year law degree and marry both,' HRD minister Kapil Sibal told PTI in an interview.

On whether BCI is opposed to the reforms, Sibal said BCI has some 'misunderstanding' on the issue. 'The government does not wish to reform any part of the system which deals with professionals,' he said.

Asked if any turf issue has been raised by Law Minister Veerapa Moily as per some reports, Sibal replied in the negative. 'We need to think about India... not Bar Council, not my ministry or your ministry. If somebody has a problem, we need
to get together and work it out,' he said.

The ministry wanted to involve BCI in the reforms process and therefore, has set up a round-table for suggesting a road map for reforms in the legal education, he said.
'We have to have a dialogue with BCI, that is why I nominated the chairman of BCI as one of the persons in the round-table but he chose not to come. We know where the needs are. We are telling the BCI please come, join us and be part
of the system and give us your input as well, so that we can walk together,' he said.

Asked about BCI's stand on the ministry's view, Sibal said 'law is not about legal practitioners alone. Supposing I want to teach law in school system, can the BCI stop me? No. Suppose I want to introduce BA law in the university system,
which has nothing to do with LLB, can the BCI stop me? No.'

At present, the BCI monitors the legal education and lays down its standards in consultation with universities.

On combined professional courses, Sibal said the requirements are multifarious in a developing economy like India. He cited examples of arbitration cases in the
construction sector.

The students in these programmes will get an ultimate degree of both law and engineering which is a four-year course and can practise both, he said adding similar courses can be started for para-legals as there is a big need of such
professionals in the country.

The BCI till date has not taken any step for para-legals. There is a huge employment opportunity for them. If I want to start a course on para-legals outside the LLM, what is the problem? he asked.

As per the reforms, the syllabus of legal education will be modified to include the application of law in many other areas.

The minister said there was no 'cause for conflict' between the HRD Ministry and the BCI over the reforms. On allegation that the reforms may pave the way for entry of foreign lawyers, Sibal said there was no such agenda.

HRD for reforms in law education

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