5 yrs on, govt yet to set up law varsity

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 2

Even after passage of nearly five years since the Haryana Government notified The National Law University, Haryana Act, 2012, it is yet to set up a law university, much to the disadvantage of those who want to pursue legal education.

The Act was notified on April 26, 2012, with an aim to set up university for “evolving and imparting comprehensive legal education to achieve excellence in all branches of law and allied disciplines”. However, it was amended and notified on July 11, 2014, as “The National Law University, Haryana (Amendment) Bill, 2014” for renaming the university as Dr BR Ambedkar National Law University, Sonepat.

Nineteen states of the country have their own national law universities. Among the neighbouring states, Punjab has Rajiv Gandhi National Law University at Patiala, Rajasthan has National Law University at Jodhpur and Himachal Pradesh has Himachal Pradesh National Law University at Shimla.

Similarly, the state government is showing extraordinary enthusiasm in the setting up of an Ayush University in Kurukshetra.

Hemant Kumar, an RTI activist, who sought information from the Higher Education Department for “inordinate delay” in the setting up of the university, alleged, that he had not been given any reason for it.

Traditionally, legal education in India was conducted through the medium of non-specialised universities of India, which granted law degrees like any other graduation degree. However, there were calls for reforms from various quarters because of the falling standards of the Bar.

Sources said the first concrete decision to this effect was taken in 1984 when various proposals to modernise legal education were considered and approved by the “Legal Education Committee” of the Bar Council, in an attempt to improve legal education in India. One of the major proposals was to establish specialised institutions to impart legal education in an integrated and diversified manner under the names of national universities/schools of law.