BCI tells SC it won’t scrap one-year LLM programme for this year: Report

The Consortium of NLUs has earlier challenged the proposal by the BCI to scrap the one-year LLM programme from the current session (2021-22)

NEW DELHI: The Bar Council of India (BCI) told the Supreme Court that it will not scrap the one-year LLM programme for this academic year.

Appearing before a bench of the Supreme Court led by the CJI of India, SA Bobde, the BCI said that the one-year programme will now be replaced by a two-year LLM programme from the academic year 2022-23, Live Law reported.

The NLU Consortium was represented in the apex court by Senior Advocate Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who expressed confidence that the decision by the BCI to postpone the scrapping of the one-year LLM programme will remove the apprehension of the concerned universities for this year, the report said.

Professor Faizan Mustafa, the Vice Chancellor of NALSAR and president of the consortium, called it “Another victory for the NLU Consortium”. He tweeted:

Another victory for the NLU Consortium. BCI has agreed to postpone implementation of One year LLM regulations to 2022-23. Outstanding arguments by Dr Abhishek Singhvi yesterday in the Supreme Court.

— Faizan Mustafa (@VC_NALSAR) February 11, 2021

Among the principal arguments put forward by Dr Singhvi, as reported by Live Law, are summarised below:

1. The BCI failed to communicate with the participating NLUs regarding the change in rules for pursuing an LLM programme.

2. One-year LLM programmes is the standard followed by almost all the leading international universities across the world.

3. The UGC, and not the BCI, has the power to regulate the administration of LLM courses in the country.

4. As per the Advocates Act, 1961, the powers of the BCI is limited to the regulation of enrollment procedure for an LLM programme. This conflicts with its new guidelines, as LLM is not an enrollment process, but is an academic programme.

On January 4, the BCI had announced that it will remove the one-year LLM programme from the current session. In its place, a two-year programme will be introduced which will be the standard duration for the programme throughout law colleges in the country. It also released a set of guidelines that will govern the administration of the 2-year LLM programme.

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