One Year LL.M Course To Be Abolished In India

LL.M COURSE IN INDIA

• The one-year LL.M course in India was introduced in 2013 by the Bar Council of India.
• LL.M is the Masters' Course in Law which gives a post-graduate degree.
• There were two options of opting either the one-year LL.M or the two years LL.M.  But now the one year remains quashed.

BCI'S NOTICE

• The Bar Council Of India in its notification- The new Bar Council of India Legal Education (Post Graduate, Doctoral, Executive, Vocational, Clinical and other Continuing Education) Rules, 2020, notified the abolition of one year LL.M course in India.
• It was said that a Master Degree Program of one year as introduced by the University Grants Commission in India in 2013 shall remain in place until the Academic Session in which these Regulations are notified and implemented but not thereafter at any University throughout the country.
• The BCI has also devised and notified an entrance examination for the two years course in the new notification. The new entrance exam would be called the Post Graduate Common Entrance Test in Law (PGCETL).
• The PGCETL would examine the candidates who have already completed their LL.B degree and would be admitted in the Master Degree based on the merit list released post the entrance test.

RULES FOR THE ENTRANCE

The BCI has notified the eligibility criteria for the candidates taking up the PGCETL.

The rules are as follows-

• The candidate must be a graduate in three-year LL.B or five-year LL.B in an integrated Law degree course with the minimum percentage in his/her graduation as notified by the BCI.
• It has been mandated to the University that they shall not admit any candidate who has not graduated with a Law degree.
• Also, LL.M. degree obtained from a Foreign University, which has been prosecuted without an equivalent LL.B. degree has been notified that it shall not be equivalent to Indian LL.M.
• And that in order to qualify for the test of equivalence of LL.M. degree obtained from any foreign University the Masters' Degree in Law course must have been taken only after obtaining the LL.B degree from any foreign or Indian University which is equivalent to the recognized LL.B degree in India.

ADDITIONAL NOTICE ATTACHED

In its notification, the Bar Council of India also states that 'the Education Policy, 2020 of Government of India categorically carved out legal education from the newly proposed umbrella apex body institution, Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) with its regulatory arm of National Higher Education Regulatory Council [NHERC] excluding the legal education as one of the only two professional education outside the swipe of the HECI and its regulatory arm, NHERC, making the entire realm of legal education for the Bar Council of India to regulate.'

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