Dr.

SHAKUNTALA MISRA NATIONAL REHABILITATION

UNIVERSITY
Lucknow

Faculty of Law

RESEARCH PROJECT ON

‘LEGAL EDUCATION IN INDIA: PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES’

For

COURSE ON ‘RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND LEGAL EDUCATION’

Submitted by
ARCHITA DAYAL

LL.M (III SEMESTER)

Academic Session: 2021-22

Under the Guidance of

Mr. Shail Shakya
Asst. Prof. in Law & Faculty for Research Methodology and Legal Education
Faculty of Law
Dr. Shakuntala Misra National Rehabilitation University

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 ACNOWLEDGEMENT

I am feeling immense pleasure in thanking my parents who have encouraged and helped me
in doing this project.

I am highly indebted to our Asst. Prof. Mr. Shail Shakya for his guidance and constant
supervision as well as for providing necessary information regarding the assignment.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

 INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………4

 PURPOSE OF LEGAL EDUCATION……………………………………..……5

 IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION IN THE LEGAL EDUCATION IN

INDIA……………………………………………………………………………...6

 PROBLEMS IN THE INDIAN LEGAL EDUCATION

SYSTEM…………………………………………………………………….….…7

 CHALLENGES BEFORE LEGAL EDUCATION IN INDIA…………..….…9

 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………..11

 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………..…12

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 1. INTRODUCTION
Legal Education is a technique, arena and platform for the rational, orderly and non-
violent settlement of disputes and handling of conflicts. Education plays a vital role in
bringing out social change. As a potential instrument and a powerful medium of bringing
changes in the society it enables drawing out of the best in the body, mind and spirit of
individuals. It equips an individual with ability to understand and reflect upon knowledge
and processes and to act in a responsible manner. Legal education is a species of main
stream education involving the study of law. It inculcates the ability to make use of law,
to analyze it and to criticize it as a member of the legal community. It focuses on the
individual freedom as also on the development of society, solidarity and strengthening of
rule of law. The progress of high quality legal education is a prerequisite to high quality
legal practitioners.
Law governs the world and its people and is the ultimate instrument of change. It has the
potential to reform society and guarantees justice to its people. It serves as an important
instrument for achieving socio-economic development in society. The primary function
of law is to maintain peace and order in society while protecting individual rights and
freedom and is, therefore, a basic element of society. The welfare of the society depends
on the democratic nature of the country, which is further dependent on the law. The law
gives structure to the nation.
The Law Commission of India defines legal education as a science that imparts to
students knowledge of certain principles and provisions of law to enable them to enter the
legal profession. The provision of high-quality legal education is a prerequisite to high-
quality legal practitioners, judges and Government law officers. The need for such
education is felt not only in the developing and underdeveloped countries but also in the
developed nations who have deemed it necessary to assess and revise curricula and
methodologies of law courses with an objective to update them for meeting new
challenges and needs of their societies. Such a need is much greater in India not only due
to its developing status but also because of its rapid economic growth.1
1
Amit Dhall, Legal Education in India: The Emerging Challenges and Prospects, available at
http://www.dehradunlawreview.com, last seen on 23/12/2021

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 2. PURPOSE OF LEGAL EDUCATION
Legal education is a species of main stream education involving the study of law. It
inculcates the ability to make use of law, to analyze it and to criticize it as a member of
the legal community. It focuses on the individual freedom as also on the development of
society, solidarity and strengthening of rule of law. The progress of high quality legal
education is a prerequisite to high quality legal practitioners. Law is the guardian and
vindicator of justice and liberty. Legal education involves the education of laws generally
to lawyers before entry into law profession. Law of a society is the standard of its social
values The need to assess and revise the curricula and methodologies of law courses with
an objective to upgrade them for meeting the new challenges and the needs of the society
is felt worldwide.
Legal education may serve the society by imparting to law students general and cultural
education making them good law abiding citizens. The aim of legal education is to bring
out among students the aptitude, interest, commitment, skills and knowledge necessary to
perform variety of roles in society including works for socially excluded people and the
poor at the local level, to espouse the cause of justice. The rapidly growing Indian
economy needs to update its legal education mechanism to suit to the requirements of the
competitive world.
Legal education and Legal Aid is State's duty and not Government's charity. Equally
affirmative is the implication that while legal services must be free to the beneficiary, the
lawyer himself has to be reasonably remunerated for his services. The Supreme Court in
Hoskot's case2 held that even so we uphold the right to counsel not in the permissive
sense of Article 22(1) but in the peremptory sense of the Article 21 confined to prison
situations. The legal assistance to a poor or indigent accused who is arrested and put in
jeopardy of his life or personal liberty is a constitutional imperative mandated not only
under Article 39-A but also by Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution. It is sine qua non
of justice and where it is not provided, injustice is likely to result and undeniably every
act of injustice corrodes the foundations of democracy and rule of law. In a democracy
the machinery of justice must be readily accessible to all. Equality before law and equal
protection of law guaranteed by our Constitution will merely be a formality.

2
AIR 1978 SCC 1548
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 The progress of high quality legal education is a prerequisite to high quality legal
practitioners. The need to assess and revise the curricula and methodologies of law
courses with an objective to upgrade them for meeting the new challenges and the needs
of the society is felt worldwide. Law of a society is the standard of its social values. The
aim of legal education should be to equip the law students with qualities of good lawyer
having mastered the theory of law, its philosophy its functions and its role in a
democratic society. The emphasis of legal education must be on preparing legal
professionals as also good citizens including legislators, judges, policy makers, public
officials, civil society activists having altruistic feelings and sense of social service.

3. IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION IN LEGAL EDUCATION IN INDIA

Globalization has thrown up new challenges to legal profession. It is the process by
which a given local condition or entity succeeds in expanding its reach over the globe and
by doing so, develops the capacity to designate a rival social condition or entity as local
under its impact. Globalization makes it increasingly difficult for legal study to be
contained within the territorial boundaries of national legal systems. To meet the
challenges of globalization, a lawyer needs to have a vision of emerging problems, zeal to
serve the cause of justice and the ability to forge new tools and techniques appropriate to
the changing needs and times. At present, the legal education is inadequate to the tasks
ahead calling for an all-out effort by taking stock of past attempts and chalking out the
future cause of action. The basic element of a free and fair society is a ‘well-functioning
legal system.’ A successful legal system provides all the facilities and fulfils all the
requirements of the peoples. The ‘rule of law’ makes a system ‘a good legal system’ in
which all persons are subject to law In India, the legal profession and legal education
both are administered by the Bar Council of India.
The Indian legal rules including the constitution of India are flexible because a rigid law
can’t survive in progressive society and in context to this the law usually changes from
time to time towards the progressive future of Indian society. To have a successful legal
system, there must be a rule of law, and to contend this we need some qualified soul and
in this regard the role of lawyers and the judges mainly in interpretation is very crucial.
The concept of National Law Universities is the latest institutional development which is

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 making our students at par with foreign students in the global scenario. These are
established with the view of revamping the whole legal set up in the country with the
latest trends gaining ground around the globe.3

4. PROBLEMS IN THE INDIAN LEGAL EDUCATION SYSTEM

Despite measures and recommendation to equip the Indian Law graduates with better
professional capabilities the challenge posed from international as well as the cross
country institutions is imminent. Some major shortcomings of our legal education system
are:
a. Easy Entry in Legal Education: Legal education has nowadays emerged as a
promising business activity for the law institutions which are mostly run by
builders and industrialists. The main problem is that the team of Bar Council and
the university which is responsible for the inspection of colleges seeking
permission to start law courses.
b. The teaching facilities and techniques: The law schools are still accustomed to
the age old method of teaching through lectures in a class room. The students are
least concerned about gaining knowledge rather their emphasis is on the
fulfilment of minimum requirement of passing the course.
c. The faulty Examination system: The laws schools adopt the traditional
examination pattern. The malady of covering a part of the prescribed syllabus and
fallacy of memorizing the selected questions rules the roost. The grade card of
students is reflection of their ability to mug up few topics instead of their
analytical and practical attributes.
d. The irrelevant syllabus: Even after being asked by the UGC Committee and Bar
Council of India for upgrading of syllabus of law courses here remains a lack of
uniformity in law curriculum of different Universities. Further, the inclusion of
too many subjects in the syllabus has diluted the concept of teaching skills and
research orientation. Law education must be made more relevant to the profession
and its challenges.

3
Legal Education- a Global Education, available at https://highcourtchd.gov.in, last seen on 23/12/2021
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 e. Vast differences among Law Institutions: The increasing level of differences
amongst the level of educational institutions have created a big divide into elite
education groups and the rest of institutions. The culture and teaching learning
process of these law institutions differs widely as regards the student learning
outcomes as also behavioural growth of the passed out candidates.
f. Shortage of good teachers: Generally the law colleges fail to attract talented law
professional for joining as teachers in their institution. The requirement of
recruiting the NET qualified applicants as lecturers has invariably limited the
choice of appointing good teachers. Also selection committees, in different
universities are restricted to make free judgments of the quality of teacher.
g. Problem of Placement: Students usually complete their placement with a
lawyer, NGO or a corporate house. The law students are expected to learn the
skill of reading and maintaining case files, legal research, drafting and client
interviewing and counselling. Students are required to maintain a diary of their
visits to lawyer’s chamber and courts recording the work they did there and the
proceeding observed. Their diaries and their preparation for the mock trail and
moot court do reflect their learning from placement. Practical training in law
schools imparted though choosing one of these methods or their combination,
namely, legal and clinic, class based lectures and simulation, and external
placement.4

5. CHALLENGES BEFORE LEGAL EDUCATION IN INDIA

The revolutionary changes in information and communication technologies require
corresponding changes in the legal system. The expectations of the country and the
people from law and legal services in the coming years requires the State to evolve the
best strategy to strengthen professional legal education while promoting wider instruction
in law as a liberal academic discipline. This requires an appropriate model to achieve
supervisory and control mechanism to ensure accountability on the part of professional
schools of law in maintaining standards of teaching, research and extension activities.

4
Sneha, Legal Education and its Problems in India, 120 International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics
(2018), available at https://acadpubl.eu/hub, last seen on 23/12/2021
8
 The unmet legal needs of different sections of society, delay and cost in accessing justice,
impact of globalization on equality and human rights, vast technological changes
especially in information and communication, the relative incapacitation of the state by
market domination and the role of professions in justice, peace and development. It is the
access to institutions and procedures which make justice possible. In structuring the
institutions and procedures, particularly in periods of transition, lawyers will have to
assist communities, interest groups and governments keeping in mind the requirements of
equity, justice and fairness. Following are some of the challenges facing legal education
in the country:
a. Physical infrastructure and financial resources: The law schools in India have
to recognize the need for creating sound physical infrastructure and for
developing research projects and should take initiatives to encourage faculty
members. Though, the infrastructure of the national law schools is better than
what exists in the law departments of traditional universities its improvement
should be across the board, including in universities. The law graduates should be
inspired and trained so that they are involved in reflecting upon the various
problems that confront society. Academic freedom to think and contribute can
only be ensured if universities have the necessary physical infrastructure and
financial resources.
b. Promotion of philanthropic initiatives in field of Legal Education: In the legal
education, philanthropy is rare and is by and large a states sponsored endeavor or
an unimpressive commercial enterprise devoid of high academic standards.
Initiatives to encourage philanthropy are required for promoting excellence in
legal education and research in the country. Efforts ought to be made by all
stakeholders, including the law schools, the bar, the bench, the law firms and
corporations for promoting philanthropic initiatives in legal education and
research.5

5
Amit K Kashyap, Professional Legal Education in India: Challenges and the Way Forward, 7 Educational Quest:
An Int. J. of Education and Applied Social Sciences (2016), available at https://ndpublisher.in, last seen on
23/12/2021
9
 c. Qualified teachers and research aptitude: Good teachers and researchers in the
law schools is also a great required in legal education to motivate the students and
impart better education of law, including clinical legal education. However,
because of poor incentives the young talents do not prefer to choose teaching as
profession or those who are in these fields are switching towards other lucrative
professions.
d. Privatization of Legal Education: The privatization of legal education has
resulted in mushrooming of law colleges resulting in the degrading of Indian
image of legal education at internationally. It has not been helpful to raise the
academic standards in terms of either quality of the faculty and students or the
promotion of research within institutions which has become mediocre commercial
ventures.
e. Foreign Universities and Legal Professionals in India: The emergence of
foreign universities and legal professionals in India have also posed serious
problem before legal education. The question arises that when in the same
expense foreign degrees can be obtained why a student should study in Indian law
schools? Similarly, the avenues of legal professionals in India will be obtained by
foreign professionals. Our aim should be to produce lawyers who will be most
sought after professionals to appear in foreign countries. When multinationals
establish firms in India, they too will require the services of lawyers whose
competence is comparable to the best anywhere. Further, the law schools in the
country should also have special topics dealing with the Corporate, Taxation and
Bankruptcy laws of different countries. The students should combine language
skills and cultural familiarity with rigorous and direct legal training.
Cyber torts, Cyber racism and Cybercrimes not only undermine our understanding
of territorial state as the ultimate final authority within its borders but raise a
number of issues relating to prevention, investigation and trial of the offenders.
Therefore, in these circumstances there is necessity of reformulation in legal
education as well in India.6

6
Mayank Shekhar, Challenges of Legal Education, available at https://www.legalbites.in, last seen on 23/12/2021
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6. CONCLUSION
The Bar Council of India (BCI), the State Bar Councils, the State Governments, the
University Grants Commission and the Universities have an extraordinary part to play for
enhancing the standard of legal education in the nation. They should work in an extensive
way with no contention. Bar Council of India, constituted under section 4 of the
Advocates Act, 1961, is a zenith body for the whole legal profession in India. The
Advocate Act, 1961, contributes BCI with far reaching forces to endorse models of legal
education for the practice of law. The vision of legal education is to give arranged
education basic to the acknowledgment of qualities as stated in the Indian Constitution.
With regards to this vision, legal education must go for planning legal professionals who
will assume definitive leadership parts keeping up the most astounding benchmarks of
professional morals and a soul of public service. Legal education ought to likewise get
ready professionals prepared to address the new difficulties and measurements of
internationalization, where the nature and association of law and legal practice are
experiencing a change in perspective.
Debates on teaching methods, introduction of clinical legal education and focus on
continuing education along with infrastructural developments became tools of quality
legal education. But one thing which actually helped in the legal education in India is the
removal of sense of complacency from the thinking process of society regarding law as a
career not as a last resort. Similarly, the opening of avenues to legal professionals in
various areas also enhanced the craze of subject.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

 STATUTE:
1. The Constitution of India, 1949
2. The Advocates Act, 1961

 JOURNALS:

1. Amit K Kashyap, Professional Legal Education in India: Challenges and the

Way Forward, 7 Educational Quest: An Int. J. of Education and Applied Social
Sciences (2016), available at https://ndpublisher.in, last seen on 23/12/2021
2. Sneha, Legal Education and its Problems in India, 120 International Journal of
Pure and Applied Mathematics (2018), available at https://acadpubl.eu/hub, last
seen on 23/12/2021

 WEBSITES:

1. Mayank Shekhar, Challenges of Legal Education, available at

https://www.legalbites.in, last seen on 23/12/2021
2. Legal Education- a Global Education, available at https://highcourtchd.gov.in, last
seen on 23/12/2021
3. Amit Dhall, Legal Education in India: The Emerging Challenges and Prospects,
available at http://www.dehradunlawreview.com, last seen on 23/12/2021

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