Centre to set-up National Law varsity

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI, MAY 31.

Concerned at the deteriorating quality of legal education in the country, the Centre has decided to establish a National Law University at Delhi with regional centres of excellence in law at Chennai, Ahmedabad and Calcutta.

According to Law Ministry sources, these institutions will be similar to the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institute of Management (IIMs). There will be a common entrance examination for admitting students to the five-year integrated law degree course.

Till now the Bar Council of India (BCI) is vested with the power to maintain the standards in legal education as also the power of de-recognition of institutions which do not fulfill the prescribed norms. Once the law university is set up, it will take over the power of granting affiliation to law colleges to ensure uniform standards in legal education.

A Bill to pave the way for setting up of the Law University and the regional centres has been finalised by the Law Ministry and a Cabinet note has been circulated. The Bill will be introduced in the monsoon session of Parliament by the Law Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley.

The proposal to set up a law university was hanging fire from 1995, when the BCI took upon itself the daunting task of improving the quality of legal education. Since then the BCI has de-recognised many institutions for not meeting the standards and recently it decided not to approve evening law colleges as most of them were without adequate infrastructure and were unable to impart quality legal education.

While deciding to set up the Law University, the government has consulted the BCI and also the judiciary at the highest levels. The proposed university is expected to stem the rot in legal education and develop quality leadership in the field of law, justice and legal management to meet the emerging challenges posed by globalisation and changing scenario in the governance of the corporate sector.

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