The Supreme Court on Monday has refused to entertain a plea seeking direction to the Centre and the Bar Council of India for setting up an expert committee to explore the possibility of starting a 3-year of LLB course in place of 5 years after class 12.
A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala stated that they need mature people to come into the profession, and the current 5 years of course has proven to be very beneficial.
As the court wasn’t convinced to entertain the plea, the petitioner sought to withdraw the PIL, which was allowed. The plea was filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay.
PETITIONER’S WORD
The petitioner has stated, “A student may be perfectly fine with opting for science in 12th grade, but it would be harassing and encumbering for him to mandatorily study Arts or Commerce in the course. It is a transgression of Article 21, as the right to free will is being violated.”
According to the petitioner, B. Tech through IITs takes 4 years of non-superfluous education, and that too in a specified field of engineering, whereas BA-LLB or BBA-LLB through the National Law Universities consumes 5 year of a student’s life while providing knowledge of arts and commerce, an unrelated & superfluous stream. Hence, a 5-year course is irrational.
THE MATTER
The lengthy & exorbitant course is disincentivizing students from pursuing law. The extraordinary and poor students are rather pursuing engineering, civil services, or other courses. BA and LLB, or BBA and LLB, are both graduation courses, and thus there is no need for both in a student’s career.
The petition stated that the Annual fees of a 5 year course are comparatively greater than that of a 3 year course.
The petition stated, “It is denying the students to pursue a single graduation course after 12th grade. The purpose of any Course is to provide just the essential knowledge required for a student’s career and not to barrage a student with all kinds of knowledge, as they are innumerable. In no way is BA essential to studying LLB. It is certainly good to know it but it is entirely superfluous.”
