The Chief Justice of India today voiced support for setting up a Legal Education Commission for the regulation of legal education in the country.

A bench of CJI Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana was dealing with Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay's PIL seeking establishment of a Legal Education Commission as well as challenging the 5-year tenure of law courses (bachelor level).

Though the matter was listed today, it could not be taken up. As such, Upadhyay mentioned the matter when the bench was rising, saying that the Union, the BCI and the Law Commission had not filed replies.

Responding to the submissions, the CJI said, "This is an important issue. Union of India should come out with something...some National Legal Education Commission or something. This is the era of expert body. There should be an expert body on legal education".

Before parting, Upadhyay highlighted that the present focus seemed to be on 4-year professional courses. He contended that if B.Tech can be completed in 4 years, B.Law (Bachelor of Law) degree can also be completed in 4 years.

Notably, when the matter was mentioned in March this year, a CJI-led bench had remarked that it cannot impose its views concerning legal education. The CJI had said that judiciary is only one stakeholder in the shaping of legal education framework. Alongwith it, views of other stakeholders, like academics, jurists, members of the Bar, researchers, etc. ire also required.

Background

The Public Interest Litigation was filed by Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, contending that "5 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 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.

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," states the present petition.

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