Jahanvi Agarwal
A plea advocating for the option to undertake a three-year law program directly after completing school has been submitted to the Supreme Court. Currently, students can enter a five-year integrated law course post-school or a three-year LL. B program after obtaining an undergraduate degree.
The petition, filed by BJP leader and lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay, calls on the Central government and the Bar Council of India (BCI) to establish an expert panel to explore the possibility of introducing a three-year law degree immediately following school.
Upadhyay argues, “Students can easily study 15-20 subjects in 03 years i.e. 06 semesters. Therefore, the present duration of 05 years i.e. 10 semesters for the Bachelor of Law Course is unreasonable and the inordinate duration is arbitrary and irrational and hence violates Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.”
He asserts that the existing five-year law programs place an unnecessary financial and time burden on students, which could be alleviated by a shorter three-year course. This reduction in course length would allow the law graduates two additional years to gain practical experience, pursue a master’s degree, or prepare for judicial examinations.
Referencing late legal luminaries like Fali S Nariman and Ram Jethmalani, the plea highlights that early starts in law careers can lead to significant accomplishments and questions the rationale behind delaying the start of legal careers by two years with a longer academic program.
“If a person can become a legend of the bar by starting their law career in just 17 years, then why should the youth waste 02 additional years of their life in the 05 years integrated course and not start their career from a young age of 20-21 years? … There are numerous examples of prodigies not being encumbered by a rigid system which focuses more on being the jack of all rather than being the master of one.”
The petition also criticizes the requirement of a Bachelor of Arts degree that often accompanies the five-year courses, which he claims is unnecessary for acquiring the basic legal knowledge required for a law degree.
The plea further requests that the Central government, the BCI, and the Consortium of the National Law Universities work together to create a comprehensive strategy to attract top talent to the legal profession. This PIL was filed with the assistance of Advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey.