Advising the Bar Council of India to consider revamping the basic structure of law courses offered in the country, the Delhi High Court has said that legal profession will fall short of challenges of new and emerging era if changes aren't made at core level.

The single-judge bench of Justice Pratibha M. Singh asked the BCI through its Counsel to consider combining law courses with different background courses so as to increase diversity of knowledged in legal field.

“You could consider giving combination courses like biology with law, physics or chemistry with law. Those courses are not there in India. How will you have people who will be well qualified to deal with challenging issues which courts are facing now?” she said.

Justice Singh remarked that it is neccessary that law courses be offered with multiple other courses so that people from more diverse backgrounds can be legal professionals. She thus asked the Council to revisit present structure of 3 years and 5 years of LLB programmes offered in the country to make due changes by expanding the portfolio.

She examplified what she was trying to imply with the help of Intellectual Property Law Cases which she deals with ordinary basis.

“You sit in the IP division. You need a lawyer who's an engineer. You need a lawyer who's a physicist. You need a lawyer who's an economist. How will you create these professionals, if you keep that very standard or five year course or three year course in play?", Justice Singh said.

Warning the BCI that legal profession can become outdated if necessary changes aren't made in order to adapt to the needs of the coming times, she highly recommended paying heed to the aspect of expansion of legal profession in the country.

 “You need people who are chartered accountants … to [become] lawyers. You need people [with] physics honours, chemistry honours, biotech honours, to be lawyers. So all those people who may be having MSC degrees or BSC degrees, you can’t say you cannot work anywhere and you will pursue law full time,” Justice Singh remarked.

The Court was taking up the petition moved by a Law Graduate, who studied from University of Delhi from 2014-17 but started working with the Delhi Jal Board as a Senior Assistant from 2016, before completion of his graduation. He has now sought permission for participating in appearing in the All India Bar Examination, 2023, scheduled for  February 5th.

The Bar Council of Delhi, has however, denied issuing him the provisional enrollment number due to which he is unable to fill out the application form. His Counsel has relied on a Gujarat High Court decision, wherein a man pursuing service was allowed to sit in the Bar Exam. The Court had granted him six months time to decide upon his future course as to whether to continue the service or switch to profession.

Referrence was also made to Supreme Court's directions in the appeal preferred in the said case to submit that the petitioner could not have been stopped from appearing in the AIBE exam or even obtaining provisional registration as it is solely his dicretion to decide on his future course of action with regard to his career after the examination.

The Court agreed with the submissions and allowed the petition.

“The legal profession has evolved to such an extent that there are several avenues of employment for lawyers. Thus, judicial notice can also be taken of the fact that the AIBE examination has not been held for more than two years now. It cannot be expected that persons who have qualified the LLB examination ought to mandatorily practice,” the court said.

The Court observed that the flexibilty provided by the Court ought have been followed. It aslo referred to Bar Council of India rules that provide for keeping the enrollment under suspension if a person gets employed in services upon enrollment.

“The BCI ought to encourage lawyers who qualified the LLB examination, to be able to appear in the bar examination and have the flexibility to either practice or to keep their enrollment under suspension,” the court said.

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