DU Law Faculty stays with CLAT 2025 for 5-year LLB admissions but plans separate exam for the future

NEW DELHI: Admission to the five year integrated law courses at Delhi University (DU) – BBA LLB and BA LLB – will be through the Common Law Admission Test, CLAT 2025, this year as well. But for the future, DU’s Faculty of Law plans to have its own entrance test, said the dean, Anju Vali Tikoo, in a conversation with Careers360.

She also shared the faculty’s plans of introducing more specialisations, apart from the existing Bachelor of Legislative Law and Bachelor of Business Administration. She also spoke about the controversy generated by the introduction of Manumriti into the faculty of law syllabus.

The university will be welcoming the third batch of students to its five-year LLB programme in 2025. What has been the response?

It was rather strange that even though we started the course in November, 2023, we had students, even from 6-7 National Law Universities (NLU), National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS), NALSAR, HNLU, NLUJ and various other institutions, withdrawing their admission and joining here.

It was a very happy moment for all of us and a reflection of the credibility of DU.

For the three-year LLB, DU was earlier conducting its own entrance exam. Now, admission is through the Common University Entrance Test (CUET PG). But why was the CLAT exam picked for the five-year LLB course?

Introduction of the five-year law course had been in the pipeline for sometime but since COVID came in, things got delayed. The Bar Council of India’s (BCI) approval had to be sorted.

Once we got the BCI approval, which was slightly delayed in terms of the beginning of the session, we couldn’t have done much. So, by the time we got the approval we did not want to waste a year by conceptualising our own test. We thought the CLAT exam was already there, we only needed the numbers.

Once we completed all the technical formalities, they agreed to share with us the data and numbers. Since the CLAT is a dedicated law-based entrance test, we thought we would get people who are interested in law. We wanted students of that kind for this course.

Are there plans in the future to have your own entrance test?

Yes, we do have plans to have our own entrance test.

For DU Law Faculty’s three-year LLB, do you notice any difference after you switched to admission through CUET PG?

When we had our own test it was a test dedicated to law. But when you say CUET PG, it is for all master courses.

If I have to share with you the mails I receive from students, they ask us to hold our own exam for admission. We did float the syllabus also but somehow or the other, University Grants Commission (UGC) didn’t agree to it and National Testing Agency (NTA) also said this is what you would be teaching in law.

We would be teaching the details but this is something students should know by the time they have completed their Class 12. For example, is there a difference between cheating and theft? These things are basic for someone wanting to pursue a masters-level course.

Why did Delhi University start the BBA LLB and BA LLB courses when it already had a highly successful three-year programme?

The need felt was with reference to the demand in the market. When we talk about placement and marketability there are a lot many organisations and now, because we are talking about global villages, we need the workforce, not just nationally but internationally.

We need the workforce to tackle many issues, not just especially in litigation but with reference to other corporate affairs. There are many newer areas of drafting legal documents. We thought this would be a focussed course which is specifically giving the students interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perception about how laws come into existence and they should be best implemented and executed.

Also read 3-year Vs 5-year LLB course: Which is better?

When we talk about the three year course, that again has its own USP, as students from different backgrounds come in and join law. They are from different core subjects and they have an opportunity to intermingle and understand the different aspects of law. Someone is from political science, another from economics, still another from commerce – each one of them understanding the different aspects of law, identifying the gap, understanding where we need to pitch in and how we move forward.

However, when we talk of the BA LLB and BBA LLB subjects, we ensure that there is a bit of political science, sociology, psychology and language also, now that we are talking about going back to our regional or vernacular languages.

But to begin with, this is a direction that we have adopted. We would bring this bunch of 80 or 120 together to have a holistic understanding of law. What is the relevance of language when we are drafting the law or policy? How words are to be chosen, their meaning, what is the content and where the placing has to be done. Language from the point of understanding the nuance of law, where it impacts.

For lawyers we all understand that language and vocabulary is the tool. How do you put your point across to convince others? It is basically reconcilitation. There would always be competing interests, so, how do we reconcile them? To best understand others' interests and to form an opinion, we need to know the pros and cons. This means understanding the interests from an economics angle, from a commerce angle and from a management angle.

So, we have two parallel courses, one is BA LLB and other is BBA LLB. One is focusing on humanities and the other is management. One is managerial; they might be interested in going into MBA; others might get into administration. Internships are compulsory in the course.

BBA LLB is quite a unique course. Why was that chosen for the launch?

A beginning needed to be made somewhere. We had thought about BCom LLB and BTech LLB but we thought it would be too much on our plate to begin with. So we started with a course with focused content.

Our USP and advantage is that we [Delhi University] have got all the departments across. We have got experts from the department who are delivering the classes. So, we have experts talking about law historically, politically and how it was being manoeuvred. So, we thought first lets get a foothold with these branches and then, maybe in the near future, we could diversify.

Are there plans to increase seats in the five-year LLB courses?

As of now there are no plans. We have an intake of 120 for now. We have had discussion on it but it was decided we need to have that niche carved out for our students.

Right now, the classes are being held at Kanad Bhawan but that is a stop-gap arrangement.

There are two options one is at Surajmal Vihar and the other is here itself at the Campus Law Centre. Two things are in the pipeline.

Will fees for the five year law course increase this year?

It would be the same, with the regular 10% increase.

Do you think the three-year LLB is in danger of becoming redundant?

It will not be so. We are into the centenary year of DU’s Faculty of Law. In 1924, we started the Faculty of Law. Check out judiciary, bureaucracy, ministries and various NLU vice-chancellors – how many are from DU. The university has that benchmark.

We have, at one point, around 10,000 students and the number is far beyond all NLUs put together.

There have been several cases of infrastructure shortcomings in DU’s Law Faculty, highlighted by the students, with some even moving the court.

Have we even noticed when these issues crop up? It is closer to the election. Having said that, not everything is fool-proof given that we are a government institution, a central university, and have huge numbers. With expansion in terms of OBC and EWS reservations, have not received the kind of support we anticipated and expected.

Certainly a 100 year old institution needs revamping. Things are in the pipeline; Campus Law Centre (CLC) might get a multi-storeyed building.

You were in the spotlight this year over the introduction of Manusmriti in the LLB syllabus. What was the idea behind it? Has it been withdrawn?

It has not been withdrawn. The paper is still running. Whatever has been floated around in the news is a totally mistaken understanding.

The fact of the matter remains that when we talk about law, it doesn’t exist in vacuum. We are talking about decolonisation. It means looking back at the roots, how we were being governed, where are the documents? Certainly we will go back to the documents which inform us what was there during the time of Kautilya, the Gupta period.

There are other departments where exactly these things are being taught. It is a sheer political reason that this has been blown out of proportion. What we are putting in the course is the interplay between state and law. Law students must understand the interaction, the relevance of how the two institutions go together.

Even when we talk about common law or Roman empire or other civilisations, there has always been demarcation, delimitation between the state and religion, so where is the harm? It is the basic essential need to understand to what extent religion should have a role in governance. It had nothing to do with religion but about getting to know our roots and how we branched out and where we are now, the comparison basically.

What is one thing that needs to change in legal education?

We need to make a beginning. We have always been talking about our rights, but we need to understand and talk about our duties. There is the chapter on fundamental duties but it is not enforceable, hence nobody bothers. We need to have an attitudinal shift in our understanding.