Chapter 38: Law

Introduction

The legal profession is concerned with the administration and enforcement of law of the land as laid down by the Constitution of the country and incorporated in the statue books. Due to many complex interactions between various constituents of the society, almost all the activities undertaken by the individuals, institutions and governments have legal implications. This would be evident from a large number of cases pending in the lower courts, high courts and supreme courts. Existing acts and the law both the central and in the states are amended or replied from time to time and new laws enacted every year.

An idea about the number of acts (both new and amended) that are passed every year by the state legislatures and the Parliament may be had from the Journal of the Parliamentary Information published by the parliamentary secretariat. There are now thousands of state and central acts, some dating to nineteenth centaury. For example the oldest act included in India code, a Compilation of the unreeled Central Acts is the Bengal Districts Act (Act No. 21)enacted in 1836. Incidentally, the commission on Review of Administrative Laws, set up by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, is reviewing the old acts to identify which one are either irrelevant or dysfunctional for the purpose of repealing them.

In addition, there are thousand of Judgements of high courts and Supreme Court which have the effects of law, unless they have been quashed subsequently by the Supreme Court. The leather bound volumes of the All India Reporter containing the full text of the judgments adorning the library shelves of advocates and judges testify to the importance of judicial verdicts. Laymen get confused when they are required to get through this jungle of laws to understand their legal positions pertaining to specific issues. They, therefore need the guidance of a person who is acquainted with complexity of the laws. The legal profession thus comes into the picture. The complexity of Indian Law has made the job of the legal profession increasingly significant.

In order to join this profession, a legal practitioner needs education to equip himself with the knowledge and skills necessary to assist those who approach him with their problems. A sound legal education is, therefore, a pre-requisite for the maintenance of the legal system and the rule of law.

However, the legal profession is seldom considered by many students as a first choice. Very often, the value of the study of law is not really understood till quite late in the student life. Many drift into law either because they are related to some one who is doing well in the legal profession or because they have nothing else to do. They feel that a law degree can help them to get a good job in a commercial organisation; or if nothing else, they can enrol themselves as advocates and start practising.

While doing so, many still look for an alternative career because of the initial frustration for not being able to make a significant headway at the Bar. There are also instances of students getting admitted at the law course to enable them to continue to stay in the hostels which provide highly subsided board and lodging! Nevertheless, like medicine, engineering, and management, law is also a highly rewarding profession. What is necessary is to take a decision to choose law as a career instead of drifting into it as the last resort, and vigorously pursue the course. In fact, the crowd of drifters who could not make a mark in the profession has diluted the quality of legal profession.

Education Opportunities

There are over 500 law colleges including university schools or faculties of law. Nearly 60% of them are located in five States viz., Madhya Pradesh (86), Maharashtra (58), Andhra Pradesh (55), Karnataka (54) and Uttar Pradesh (50).

Considering the need for high quality law graduates; the Bar Council of India took the initiative of establishing in 1987, the first university, National Law School of India University, under a Karnataka Act. It is now one of the centres of excellence in the country which impart comprehensive legal education at different levels. Encourages by its success, four more law universities sponsored by the concerned State Governments have been established:

1.  Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University in Chennai (1997);

2.  National Academy of Legal Studies and Research University in Hyderabad (1998);

3.  National Law Institute University in Bhopal (1998); and

4.  West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences in Calcutta (1999). The Government of Kerala is likely to establish a law university in Kochi.

Apart from conducting courses. These universities also promote research in various legal issues. At the first degree level, they offer only five-year integrated programmes. Admissions are made on all-India basis through entrance tests. A brief account of the courses offered by the five universities is given in Annexure 1.

Six categories of programmes at different levels are offered by universities:

1.  First Degree (Professional) Courses of three-year duration;

2.  First Degree (Professional) Integrated Courses of five-year duration;

3.  Non-Professional Degree Courses;

4.  Postgraduate Degree Courses;

5.  Research Degree Courses; and

6.  Postgraduate Diploma Courses.

It is only the professional degree which is the requirement for entering the legal profession as advocates.

Professional Degree Courses: As stated above, there are two streams of first degree courses. The eligibility requirement for the three-year stream is graduation in any discipline. The three-year degree courses are offered by day and evening law colleges. But the Bar Council of India, which is the regulatory authority for legal education (see Chapter 7 – Regulatory Authorities) had passed a resolution on October 30, 1999 directing all evening law colleges to switch over to day classes. It has warned that failure to do so would lead to the derecognition of degrees awarded by them. The students, therefore, would not be entitled to undertake legal practice.

In order to encourage students to take an early decision for entering the legal profession, the Bar Council in India asked universities to introduce five-year integrated courses open to candidates who have passed the 10+2 examination. Of the 112 university law faculties, only 36 have so far introduced integrated programmes ( Annexure 2). Most of these universities, however, continue to offer three-year programmes also. The course contents of integrated programmes include subjects, such as, English, sociology, history, political science, and economics.

The course curriculums of the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR) University and the National Law School of India (NLSI) University given in Annexure 3 and Annexure 4 respectively will give a broad idea about the comprehensiveness of the integrated programmes. It may be noted that the NALSAR University programme provides for several non-credit courses, such as, language development, legal skill development, moot court, mock trial, public interest lawyering and legal literacy.

Another feature is the Seminar Courses. They are intended to expose students to such newly emerging areas as Cyber Laws, Law and Urbanisation, Science and Technology related laws. Seminar Courses also cover areas like Election Laws, Consumer Protection Laws, Criminology, and Military Law which could not be accommodated in the course curriculum.

The nomenclatures of the first degree professional courses are, BL (Bachelor of Laws), or its present incarnation Bachelor of Civil and Criminal Laws (LLB), LLB (Professional) or LLB (Special). However, the five law universities use the nomenclature BA.BL (Hons) or BA.LLB (Hons). The WB National University of Juridical Sciences, awards B.Sc. LLB for science related law courses.

Non-Professional Degree Courses: The duration of the non-professional courses is two years leading to awards having such nomenclatures as Bachelor of General Laws (BGL), Bachelor of Academic Laws (BAL), LLB (Academic). Some universities awards LLB (General) or LLB (Academic) to candidates who have successfully completed two years of study of the three-year LLB course. Similarly, the degree of BA (Law) is awarded to students who successfully complete the first three years of the integrated LLB course. However, such degree holders cannot undertake legal practice.

Postgraduate Degree Courses: More than 65 universities have introduced ML/LLM degree courses of two year duration. Only BL/LLB degree holders are admitted to the Master’s programmes. The courses focus on several application areas of law, such as International Law, Property Law, Commercial Law, Human Rights Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law, Personal Law, Law of Crimes. A small number of universities offer Master’s programme in specific areas, such as Master of Labour Laws and Personnel Management (MLPM), Master of Labour Laws & Labour Welfare (MLL&LW), ML (Labour Laws), ML (Constitutional Law and Administrative Law). The NLSI University has introduced Master of Business Laws (MBL) through distance mode. Eligibility: requirement is any one of the degree – LLB, MBA, M.Com, CA, CWA.

Research Degree Courses: M.Phil course of one-year duration is offered by the NLSI University and WB National University of Juridical Sciences open to LLM degree holders. As of now, 16 universities offer DL/LLD course. Eligibility: ML/LLM degree. The NLSI University has a four-year doctoral programme leading to the award of Doctor of Jurisprudential Sciences (JSD). Eligibility: BA.LLB (Hons).

Postgraduate Diploma Courses: Postgraduate diploma courses of one-year duration are available in a number of universities in such areas as Banking, Commercial Laws, Company Laws, Cooperative Laws, Election Laws, Environmental Laws, Human Rights Law, Intellectual Property, International Laws, Labour Laws, Taxation Laws. There are two courses in medical laws, both through distance learning mode: (1) NLSI University –PG Diploma in Medical Law and Ethics; and (2) Symbiosis Centre of Health Care (Pune-411004). While the NLSI University

Course is open to any graduate, the eligibility requirement for the other is degree in any system of medicine.

Distance Learning Courses: Besides the NLSI University which offers MBL, Postgraduate Diploma in Medical Law and Ethics, and PG Diploma in Human Rights, several other universities offer non-professional degree, Masters, degree and postgraduate diploma courses (See Update).

Quality of Legal Education

In 1995, the BCI in a bid to improve the quality of legal education framed a training rule, which came into force from April 2, 1996. The rule provided for a mandatory training on one-year duration after padding the BL/LLB examination as an apprentice under a practicing advocate of 15-year standing. Successful completion of the apprenticeship would entitle candidates to enrol themselves as advocates. The pre-enrolment mandatory apprenticeship created a lot of resentment.

The Supreme Court of India, while appreciating the laudable objective with which the rules were framed for training young entrants during their formative years at the Bar, quashed the training rule on the ground that rule-making power of the BCI under the Advocate’s Act 1961 entitles it to frame rules only to deal with post-enrolment and not in pre-enrolment situation. The Supreme Court recommended entrusting BCI with appropriate statutory powers by amending the Advocates’ Act, 1961 to “prescribe and provide for all-India basis pre-enrolment training of advocates as well as requisite apprenticeship to make them efficient and well-informed officials of the court so as to achieve better administration of justice”.

As states earlier, there are more than 500 Law colleges including University law faculties. Most of the law colleges affiliated to universities are in the private sector. Jurists and legal luminaries have been expressing grave concern for the steady deterioration of legal education and the decline of professional ethics. Law colleges are mushrooming as a profitable business venture because it hardly needs any substantial investment to start a college. Many colleges have minimum library facilities, an essential requirement for legal education. Appointment of part-time teachers is a rule rather than an exception. Practical training is conspicuous by its total absence. For the first time, the Bar Council of India in 1995 served show-cause notices on 54 colleges for lack of infrastructural facilities necessary for offering law courses.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) constituted under the Advocates Act, 1961 has framed rules dealing with “Standards of Legal Education and Recognition of Degrees in Law for Admission as Advocates” (Part IV of the Bar Council of India Rules). According to these rules, all law colleges given affiliation by universities must obtain recognition from the Bar Council. The Legal Education Committee of BCI is responsible for taking decision in the matter on the basis of the information provided by the colleges and the report of the inspection committee appointed by the BCI. The rules, among others, stipulate the following:

(a)  a well-equipped library

(b)  a building for exclusive use during the working hours having class rooms, common rooms for students and teachers, library hall to accommodate book shelves and reading tables sufficient to seat 20% of the students enrolled, and office rooms;

(c)  a teacher-student ratio of at least 1:40;

(d)  maximum student strength in a college with five-year programme not exceeding 1600 (i.e., 320 for each class, but not exceeding 80 in any section of each of such classes);

(e)  full-time teachers possessing Master’s degree in law. The rules also recommend the syllabus with the stipulation that for each paper there should be “lecture classes for at least 3 hours and one hour of tutorial work per week. Only a small number of law colleges follow these norms.

As has been stated earlier, another step taken by the BCI for improving the quality of legal education is its decision to direct all evening colleges to switch over to day classes. The BCI is of the view that evening law colleges cannot impart legal education as prescribed under the rules because of recent revision of the curriculum. The revised syllabus prescribes 21 compulsory subjects, three optionals and four papers in practical training. The practical training includes court visits. The evening law colleges, therefore, are not in a position to do that. The decision of the BCI has raised a storm of protests.

Career Opportunities

Law provides myriad career opportunities. With the enactment of each new law, newer opportunities for the legal profession are thrown up. Even a decade back, neither the problems of consumers, nor those relating to environment were a subject for litigation which called for the services of lawyers. There are now more and more public interest litigations than ever before. Legal practice is the first option that comes to one’s mind as soon as the law studies are completed. Apart from setting up one’s own private and gradually building up a good reputation, law graduates can also join law firms or solicitor’s firms. The firms recruit fresh law graduates who are trained to work on cases.

For a beginner, this type of exposure has an edge over private practice, because a new incumbent gets the opportunity to work with experienced senior lawyers. Whatever may be the size of the pay packet, the experience and the exposure stand him in good stead for the future. With the acquisition of adequate experience one can branch out on his own. However, those who do not like office jobs may opt for becoming their own bosses by trying their luck at private practice. There is, however, a saying that goes like this. In the life of a lawyer, there are four stages. In the first stage, there is no work and therefore no money. In the next stage there is work but no money. It is in the third stage that there is both work and money. And finally, there is no work but still plenty of money! (Pundit, Gitanjali: Careers in Law, New Delhi, Caring, 1996.p.110). One has to go a long way even before he reaches the third stage.

Government jobs offer another avenue for enterprising law graduates. In order to join the subordinate judicial services, law graduates have to appear in competitive examinations conducted by the State Public Service Commissions in different States. In the state judicial service one can move up from munsif to a sub-judge to district judge. After working as a judge for several years there is possibility of being selected as a district judge of the High Court. The only other route to become a High Court Judge is a specified number of years in a particular court as a successful practicing lawyer.

Besides judicial services, many government departments both at the state and central level require legal experts as law officers or public prosecutors in law enforcing agencies. Notable among them is the Union Law and Justice Ministry which needs lawyers to perform various tasks including drafting of new bills. The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducts combined recruitment tests for posts of Assistant Public Prosecutors. The defence services too have their own judicial system which derive their powers from various Acts such as the Indian Army, Navy and Air Forces Acts and are governed by Art 136 of the Indian Constitution. Defence Services, therefore, offer openings to LLB degree holders in their Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Department.

Of late, the corporate sector has emerged as one of the major employers of legal professionals since most of the big companies both in the private and public sectors, have legal departments to handle their legal matters. Given the number of legal battles the private sector organisations get embroiled in, they need legal experts to manage the legal front. Even for professionally qualified personnel and industrial relations managers, a degree in law stands him in good stead. With the globalisation of Indian industry, legal complexities and multiplying. This means that job opportunities for law graduates are on the increase.

A law degree is an added qualification for a company secretary. Law is also a favoured subject for Civil Service aspirants both for the preliminary and main examinations. The legal knowledge is helpful for those who opt for Indian Police Service and Indian Revenue Service. With the proliferation of law colleges, teaching remains a major opening for Postgraduate and doctoral holders. The increasing number of women entering the legal profession and the large number of established women lawyers show that the profession is certainly a preferable career of choice for them.