New Delhi, May 9, 2025 — In a recent development, the Supreme Court of India, comprising a Division Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta, heard a public interest litigation (PIL) advocating a structural reform in the country’s legal education framework. The PIL called for replacing the existing 5-year integrated LL.B. program with a 4-year undergraduate law degree, in line with the National Education Policy 2020.
The petitioner submitted that NEP 2020 emphasizes a uniform four-year model for professional undergraduate programs and suggested that legal education should align with this framework to foster consistency and adaptability across disciplines.
In addition to the proposed duration change, the PIL urged the Court to direct the Central Government to constitute a Legal Education Commission or an Expert Committee. This body, as per the plea, should include eminent jurists, educationists, retired judges, senior advocates, and legal academics to comprehensively review and modernize the syllabus, curriculum, and structure of both LL.B. and LL.M. programs across the country.
However, the Bench refrained from issuing a notice on the PIL at this stage. Instead, the matter was tagged with a previously pending case concerning the validity and recognition of one-year LL.M. programs.
