Delhi University plans to introduce two 5-year integrated LLB programmes: Official

NEW DELHI: The Delhi University plans to introduce two five-year integrated LLB programmes in the next academic year to provide a "more affordable and high-standard legal education", a senior university official said on Tuesday.

These are the Bachelor of Arts-LLB and the Bachelor Business Administration/Bachelor of Commerce-LLB, the official said, adding that initially, 102 students will be admitted in the two sections. The university is planning to file an application with the Bar Council of India, seeking permission to initiate the five-year integrated LLB programmes after approval from statutory bodies – Academic Council and Executive Council.

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The University of Delhi started legal education in 1924 with the establishment of the Department of Law under the Faculty of Law. Until now, the law department used to offer a three-year LLB, LLM (full-time as well as part-time) and a PhD in Law. Giving details about the two new programmes, the official said: "The Bachelor of Arts-LLB (BA-LLB) programme will offer at least three disciplines of arts such as political science, sociology and economics along with the courses of law, while the Bachelor Business Administration/Bachelor of Commerce-LLB (BBA/BCom-LLB) will offer various courses (papers) of commerce, management, and economics disciplines."

The admission to the new courses will be based on the Common Law Entrance Test (CLAT) 2023 result, he said. The official was a part of the committee constituted to form these courses. In 2022, Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh had constituted a Workload Assessment Committee to examine the implementation of five-year integrated LLB programmes in terms of assessing the current workload and working out the modalities for running the programme. The committee submitted a report which is a part of the agenda of the upcoming Academic Council meeting on May 26.

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"Legal education institutions imparting such integrated programmes in NCT are either very expensive or lack quality or both. Therefore, access to quality legal education is a challenge for the youth. Accordingly, it was felt that the university, in its centennial year, should start five-year integrated law programmes, which shall be of a high standard and more affordable," the official said. The seats for the programmes will be new, and over and above the sanctioned seats of the Faculty of Law. The committee has suggested that a new centre will be constituted which will be part of the Faculty of Law.

"The new centre will be given a name and it shall be headed by a professor-in-charge," the official said. On the provisioning for teaching faculty, the committee has suggested that initially, these two programmes be run by the existing faculty members of the three law centres (LC-I, LC-II and CLC). "However, for the purpose of teaching in Arts and BBA/Commerce components of the programmes, necessary arrangements be made by the university depending upon the operational requirement," the committee has suggested.

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The issue of space for running the five-year integrated LLB programmes was also taken up by the committee and it was decided that adequate space, as per the Bar Council of India norms, will be provided within the existing infrastructure facilities available with the university. "Some rooms on two floors of Kanad Bhavan have been identified to start the two programmes. These rooms will be made ready as per Legal Education Rules 2008, of the Bar Council," the official said.