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LEGAL EDUCATION IN INDIA
By Kian Ganz
he Indian legal system is well known for not Subramanium, the countryʹs solicitor general and
being an enjoyable place for most litigants; cases current chairman of lawyersʹ only regulatory body, the
can drag on for dozens of years, outcomes are Bar Council of India (BCI). The subtext to
never certain, and low‐level corruption is ʺcondemnableʺ in this context is that for years the BCI
endemic at some courts. For years, Indiaʹs government has given permissions for law colleges to open all over
has proposed solutions but the problem has proved to India, and according to almost everyone familiar with
be too vast to handle. The livelihoods of more than 1 the process, things were not always kosher. Whether
million lawyers in India depend on the system and its someone was allowed to open a new law school
inefficiencies as they currently stand. depended less on the faculty and institution of learning
one wished to assemble and build, and more on local
The most realistic approach therefore looks further political connections, clout and in some cases,
into the future towards the next generation and starts allegedly, even outright bribes.
right at the beginning: improving Indian legal
education. The need for reform in education is Indiaʹs Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in June
necessary both in its own right as well as for the 2010 described Indian legal education as a ʺsea of
positive effect this would ultimately have on the institutionalised mediocrity,ʺ in which there were only
countryʹs legal profession. And interestingly, legal ʺa small number of dynamic and outstanding law
education in India is currently in a state of flux that has schools.ʺ ʺBut I am afraid,ʺ he added, ʺthey remain
not been seen for decades, if ever. islands of excellence amidst a sea of institutionalised
mediocrity.”
India has more than 900 law colleges, of which continued on page 4
around 300 are ʺcondemnableʺ according to Gopal