The University Grants Commission (UGC) has finally approved one-year LLM degree at its 488th Meeting held on September 6, 2012 at New Delhi..According to the Minutes of the Meeting, “The Commission considered the amendments in respect of UGC (Minimum Standards of Instructions for the grant of the Master’s Degree through Formal Education) Regulations, 2003 for giving effect to one year LL.M Degree as part of restructuring of legal education and approved the same.”.The UGC had been actively considering the proposal to recognize one-year LL.M Degree for the last two years.The UGC in May 2011 had in principle agreed to restructure the two year LL.M program into one year LL.M program..According to the Minutes of the 478th Meeting of UGC held on May 4, 2011, “The Commission accepted the report of the expert committee for restructuring of the LL.M course from two years to one year. The Commission has agreed in principle to restructure the two-year LL.M program into one year LL.M program. It was decided that, in order to operationalise the recommendations of the expert committee, a three-member committee may be constituted under the Chairmanship of Prof. Madhav Menon. The two other members of the committee may be appointed in consultation with Prof. Madhav Menon. The draft UGC (LL.M. Degree I-Year Duration) Regulations, 2011 may also befinalized by the Committee..It was also decided that UGC (Minimum Standards of Instruction for the Grant of the Master’s Degree through Formal Education) Regulations 2003 be amended so that there are no inconsistencies between the Regulations of 2003 and the proposed Regulations for the restructured LL.M Program.”.The expert committee had recently submitted its report to the UGC, which was accepted by UGC..The UGC in its recent full commission meeting chaired by UGC Vice Chairman and Acting Chairman Prof. Ved Prakash has taken the final decision to approve one year LL.M Degree..Bar & Bench spoke to Prof. (Dr) N. R. Madhava Menon on this development. He said, “I am happy to learn about this development and I hope it will be implemented from July 2013. All over the world it’s a one year programme and only in India and few other countries, it’s a two year programme..He added, “The course is not for everybody; the one year programme is aimed at creating researchers and teachers. We want more teachers and researchers in this country.”.Bar & Bench also spoke to NALSAR Vice Chancellor Prof Faizan Mustafa. He said, “This was something we had been asking for the last 3-4 years. Our concern was that we were not getting good faculty and second, in the rest of the world LL.M is only one year. We had been observing that people are not willing to do a two-years LL.M after doing a five years of LLB. Therefore, if you want to encourage people to join academia in law then LL.M should be one year course”..When asked about NLUO’s LLM-Ph.D conjoint program, Prof Mustafa said “This course was for a minimum three years. Even as per then guidelines, when two-year LL.M and two-year Ph.D was combined, one year could be saved and thus minimum 3-years course was consistent with the UGC rules on the conjoint courses. Therefore, my vision of the Orissa course showed NLUO’s futuristic, creative and innovative approach. I was consistent with the UGC regulation then and now my course is found to be fully in tune with new UGC norms with one year LL.M.”.Elaborating further Prof. Mustafa observed, “LL.B was earlier for three years after three years of graduation. But when graduation and law were combined, it became five year course. Similarly when two year LL.M was combined with two year Ph.d it can become three year conjoint LL.M- Ph.D program”..Prof Faizan has indeed proved to be farsighted when he introduced this LL.M-Ph.D integrated program in NLUO. Justifying one year LL.M, Prof. Mustafa said, “To become Astt. Professor in any subject, a person has to do three years of graduation and two years of Masters, forcing law graduates to do two year LL.M after three years of graduation, three years of LL.B or after five year B.A. LL.B course was arbitrary and without any rational basis”..Prof Mustafa further said, “This is a very positive, futuristic and a good move by UGC. I must congratulate Prof Ved Prakash and HRD Minister Kapil Sibal for accepting our long standing demand of recognizing one year LL.M. This integrates Indian legal education with the global education because all over the world LL.M is for one year”..He expressed the hope that now some bright law graduates would join one year LL.M and eventually join teaching profession as they badly need quality teachers to teach highly talented and bright law students. He also told Bar & Bench that ideally B.A. LL.B should be the qualification for the appointment as Astt. Professor. In fact, Prof. Mustafa has taken up this matter with the Bar Council of India.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has finally approved one-year LLM degree at its 488th Meeting held on September 6, 2012 at New Delhi..According to the Minutes of the Meeting, “The Commission considered the amendments in respect of UGC (Minimum Standards of Instructions for the grant of the Master’s Degree through Formal Education) Regulations, 2003 for giving effect to one year LL.M Degree as part of restructuring of legal education and approved the same.”.The UGC had been actively considering the proposal to recognize one-year LL.M Degree for the last two years.The UGC in May 2011 had in principle agreed to restructure the two year LL.M program into one year LL.M program..According to the Minutes of the 478th Meeting of UGC held on May 4, 2011, “The Commission accepted the report of the expert committee for restructuring of the LL.M course from two years to one year. The Commission has agreed in principle to restructure the two-year LL.M program into one year LL.M program. It was decided that, in order to operationalise the recommendations of the expert committee, a three-member committee may be constituted under the Chairmanship of Prof. Madhav Menon. The two other members of the committee may be appointed in consultation with Prof. Madhav Menon. The draft UGC (LL.M. Degree I-Year Duration) Regulations, 2011 may also befinalized by the Committee..It was also decided that UGC (Minimum Standards of Instruction for the Grant of the Master’s Degree through Formal Education) Regulations 2003 be amended so that there are no inconsistencies between the Regulations of 2003 and the proposed Regulations for the restructured LL.M Program.”.The expert committee had recently submitted its report to the UGC, which was accepted by UGC..The UGC in its recent full commission meeting chaired by UGC Vice Chairman and Acting Chairman Prof. Ved Prakash has taken the final decision to approve one year LL.M Degree..Bar & Bench spoke to Prof. (Dr) N. R. Madhava Menon on this development. He said, “I am happy to learn about this development and I hope it will be implemented from July 2013. All over the world it’s a one year programme and only in India and few other countries, it’s a two year programme..He added, “The course is not for everybody; the one year programme is aimed at creating researchers and teachers. We want more teachers and researchers in this country.”.Bar & Bench also spoke to NALSAR Vice Chancellor Prof Faizan Mustafa. He said, “This was something we had been asking for the last 3-4 years. Our concern was that we were not getting good faculty and second, in the rest of the world LL.M is only one year. We had been observing that people are not willing to do a two-years LL.M after doing a five years of LLB. Therefore, if you want to encourage people to join academia in law then LL.M should be one year course”..When asked about NLUO’s LLM-Ph.D conjoint program, Prof Mustafa said “This course was for a minimum three years. Even as per then guidelines, when two-year LL.M and two-year Ph.D was combined, one year could be saved and thus minimum 3-years course was consistent with the UGC rules on the conjoint courses. Therefore, my vision of the Orissa course showed NLUO’s futuristic, creative and innovative approach. I was consistent with the UGC regulation then and now my course is found to be fully in tune with new UGC norms with one year LL.M.”.Elaborating further Prof. Mustafa observed, “LL.B was earlier for three years after three years of graduation. But when graduation and law were combined, it became five year course. Similarly when two year LL.M was combined with two year Ph.d it can become three year conjoint LL.M- Ph.D program”..Prof Faizan has indeed proved to be farsighted when he introduced this LL.M-Ph.D integrated program in NLUO. Justifying one year LL.M, Prof. Mustafa said, “To become Astt. Professor in any subject, a person has to do three years of graduation and two years of Masters, forcing law graduates to do two year LL.M after three years of graduation, three years of LL.B or after five year B.A. LL.B course was arbitrary and without any rational basis”..Prof Mustafa further said, “This is a very positive, futuristic and a good move by UGC. I must congratulate Prof Ved Prakash and HRD Minister Kapil Sibal for accepting our long standing demand of recognizing one year LL.M. This integrates Indian legal education with the global education because all over the world LL.M is for one year”..He expressed the hope that now some bright law graduates would join one year LL.M and eventually join teaching profession as they badly need quality teachers to teach highly talented and bright law students. He also told Bar & Bench that ideally B.A. LL.B should be the qualification for the appointment as Astt. Professor. In fact, Prof. Mustafa has taken up this matter with the Bar Council of India.
