Exams mandatory for LLB students: BCI high-level committee

NEW DELHI: A high-level committee constituted by the Bar Council of India has unanimously recommended conducting exams mandatorily for intermediate and final-year LLB students on Thursday.

Depending on the COVID-19 situation on the ground, the universities and colleges can conduct exams in online, offline, or blended mode, the committee said in its report. The BCI committee has also suggested conducting open-book exams (OBE) or an assignment-based evaluation to award a degree.

The BCI has accepted the recommendations and stated that the universities and legal education centres are “free to determine the mode of evaluation or examination for promotion and for the award of the Law Degree and for the conduct of examination”.

“The committee has also recommended that the Universities/Centers of Legal Education should ensure that sufficient time gaps exist between regular and backlog examinations to avoid inconvenience to the students,” the BCI statement said.

The high-level committee was constituted after BCI received “thousands” of requests to cancel end-term exams and frame guidelines for alternative evaluation methods for LLB students.

The committee members included several High Court judges, Vice-Chancellors of National Law University, Nagpur and National Law Institute University, Bhopal. Director of Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar and Indian Law Institute, Delhi were also a part of the committee.

Over 300 final-year DU LLB students had also requested BCI to cancel the OBE exams. Opposing the request, another set of LLB students also wrote to BCI in favour of conducting DU OBE exams.

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