Supreme Court Considers Plea To Replace 5-Year Law Degree Course With 4-Year LL.B

The Supreme Court on Friday considered a PIL seeking to replace the 5-year LL.B course with a 4-year LL.B course on the ground that the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020) promotes four-year undergraduate courses for professional degrees.

A bench comprising Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta, did not issue notice on the petition, and tagged it with another matter concerning 1-year LL.M course.

The Public Interest Litigation was filed by Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, contending that "05 years B. Law has been designed for extracting money and the most egregious part is that such dirty trick is being used in the name of education. A five-year course is no benchmark for judging the legal expertise of any student". 

The petition also seeks directions to the Centre to set up a Legal Education Commission or Expert Committee consisting of Eminent Educationists, Jurist(s), Retired Judge(s), Advocate(s), and Professors to review the Syllabus, Curriculum and Duration of the LL.B and LL.M Courses and take appropriate steps to attract the best talent in the Legal Profession. 

The petitioner relies on the New Education Policy, 2020 and states that the policy promotes four-year Graduation Courses in all Professional and Academic Courses but the Bar Council of India (BCI) has not taken appropriate steps to review the existing Syllabus, Curriculum and the Duration of the LL.B and LLM Courses.

Today, when Senior Advocate Vikas Singh appeared for the petitioner, Justice Nath asked : "You think something important is raised [in this PIL]?"

Singh replied: "I tell your lordship what persuaded me to appear. My Yoga teacher, he is having difficulty in educating his daughter because of the fees structure and he has to pay her fees for five years. Four year, education policy also says. There is another court which is examining whether LLM one year should be banned."

Justice Nath suggested that the matter be taken to the Bar Council. Singh then requested that the matter be tagged with the one year LLM matter pending before Justice Surya Kant's bench, which the Court allowed. 

Earlier, the same petitioner had filed a petition seeking to replace the 5-year LL.B course with 3-year course after Class 12. In April 2024, the Supreme Court refused to entertain that petition, with the then CJI DY Chandrachud commenting, "We need mature people coming into the profession. This 5-year course has been very beneficial."

"The Injury Caused to the Students is extremely large because the 05 years duration of BA-LLB and BBA-LLB Course is disproportionate to the Course Material. The Long period puts excessive financial burden on the Middle and Lower-Class family and they are unable to bear such a heavy financial burden. It takes two more years for a student to become the bread earner in his family," stated the present petition.

Case Details: ASHWINI KUMAR UPADHYAY v. UNION OF INDIA AND ORS|W.P.(C) No. 453/2025