That there is an acute shortage of quality legal education is no secret, and the Chief Justice of India, K.G. Balakrishnan, after rueing that law students do not take up litigation is now on a mission to encourage law graduates to pursue a teaching career.

Speaking on the occasion of the second convocation at the Indian Law Institute, Delhi, the CJI stated that other lucrative avenues often lure away quality teachers. “While there is no doubt that today's law graduates have many career-paths to choose from, we should devise methods to attract some of the best among them to the teaching line," he suggested. Union Minister for Law, Veerappa Moily as well believes that the lack of good teachers is a major hindrance for the optimum development of legal education in India.

Seeing as to how at present, most law colleges in India focus mainly on the theory of the law rather than the application of knowledge in practical situations, Moily opined that the legal education system in India ought to show an increased flexibility and effort to maintain quality.

Shamnad Basheer, Professor of Intellectual Property Law at the Kolkata’s National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS), who came back to India after his teaching stint in the US is optimistic about the changing landscape of law teaching in India. He believes that Indian legal education is in the post-Madhav Menon phase, with Phases I and II being the pre-Menon and Menon phase of setting up National Law Universities. Phase III he recommends should emphasise on research and scholarship. “If you want younger people and academics who are abroad to join academia in India, you need to promote younger scholars who go on to become future scholars like Professor Upendra Bakshi and Professor Menon,” he told Bar & Bench. “The role of an academic is changing. We should not define the role of an academic as purely a law professor. One can be a consultant or work with the Government and therefore, the law schools or universities should provide an ecosystem that is flexible to promote scholarship.” Most Universities tend to promote only on the basis of age and not merit. I believe that this system has to undergo a change. Luckily, for me, I was encouraged by our Director (Dean) who provided me an environment that helped me focus on academics and not the bureaucracy of it” he said.

Pointing out at some of the problems, Rahul Singh, now teaching at his alma mater, National Law School of India University, Bangalore says, “When a law graduate comes to any law university to teach, he already is ready for the pay scale offered by the Universities. The challenge for the younger faculty is to face the opposition and the mental block of some of the Senior Faculty in their methods and approach and their resistance to the younger generation. Globally the pay scales for Law Professors are lesser than that of their peers in the Corporate or the Law Firm world. Law graduates opt for teaching because they are passionate. We need to move from a mentality of finding people who become law professors as a last resort.”

With a sizeable number of law graduates finding teaching a viable alternative, legal education might just be looking at a solution to quality faculty and innovative approaches. The 6^th Pay Commission has improved salaries for lecturers and professors, and it might be worth a try for serious researchers and graduates passionate about teaching and engaging the next generation.