The Delhi High Court today refused to entertain a plea seeking directions to the Centre to form a legal education commission to ascertain the feasibility of having a four-year LL.B course.
A Division Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora stated that the issue does not fall within the Court’s domain and also emphasized that the students must study non-law subjects as well.
When the High Court informed that it would dismiss the plea, the petitioner, Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay said he would withdraw the plea. Subsequently, the request was allowed.
During the proceedings, the petitioner argued that legal stalwarts like Ram Jethmalani and Soli Sorabjee had joined the profession at the age of 17 years and 21 years, respectively . To this, the Court responded that their education never came to an end. The court observed that their lectures show how much they absorbed even after joining the profession.
When the petitioner noted that law students were being made to study subjects like history and economics, the Bench said that as law students, they must read these subjects also as a lot of innovation was happening in all those fields. It further remarked that the fields of law, science and technology are all connected.
Furthermore, Justice Manmohan stated that if one has to pratice law, he has to study income tax, economics, engineering because the courts deal with various matters everyday. The court remarked that a certain bit of lack of knowledge has led to the filing of the petition.
The petitioner also prayed that the Bar Council of India (BCI) be directed to constitute an expert committee of retired judges, jurists and educationists to examine the coherence of a five year law course with the National Education Policy. However, the court said that it was not going to direct the BCI to consider Upadhyay’s representation either.
Earlier, Upadhyay had filed a PIL in the Supreme Court seeking directions to allow students to pursue three-year LL.B. courses right after school. The top court had refused to entertain the plea with Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud remarking that mature people are needed in the legal profession.