India must aspire to provide world class legal education through a \u201cdramatic reform\u201d of the present system to improve the economic environment and ensure citizens get speedy and affordable access to justice, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must dream if we want to make progress of having a world class educational system. Law universities should be a part of our national ambition,\u201d he said at an event at the Vigyan Bhavan here attended among others by Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily and Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan.<\/p>\n
Inaugurating the National Consultation for Second Generation Reforms in Legal Education, Manmohan Singh said he had \u201ca vision\u201d that the new South Asian University to be established by the Indian government with other South Asian countries \u201cwould ultimately expand to include an outstanding law faculty with an eminent global faculty.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur new five-year law schools across India have shown that we are second to none when we make up our mind but we have to spread this excellence for ensuring inclusive legal education,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Speaking of the need to reform the legal education system, Manmohan Singh said: \u201cIf we are to have a society\u2026 where the common man and common woman gets speedy and affordable access to justice, if we are to have in our country the turbulence in effect of the rule of law, if we are to have an economic environment where contracts are easily enforceable, then we must ensure that our law teachers, practicing advocates, corporate legal luminaries, legal advisors, judicial officers and legal facilitators are indeed men and women of very high intellectual caliber.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd this is possible only if there is dramatic reform and improvement in the scope and quality of our legal education system.\u201d<\/p>\n
Noting that India had a \u201csmall number of dynamic and outstanding law schools\u201d, Manmohan Singh, however, lamented that \u201cthey remain islands of excellence amidst a sea of institutionalized mediocrity\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not even marginally nearer to profound scholarship and enlightened research in law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recalling the words of then president S. Radhakrishnan that \u201cour colleges of law do not hold a place of high esteem either at home or abroad, nor has law become an area of profound scholarship and enlightened research\u201d, Manmohan Singh said: \u201cIt\u2019s no doubt we have traveled a long distance since that time. But we must admit and have to ask honestly ourselves whether we have significantly altered the landscape of our legal education system.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we and we must introspect honestly, we must sadly accept that Radhakrishnan\u2019s powerful yet poignant words may not be amenable to any radical restatement even today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said action \u201con many fronts\u201d was required to reform and improve India\u2019s legal education system to meet the needs of the growing economy and \u201ca knowledge society that we wish to become\u201d.<\/p>\n
Pointing to the \u201cserious problem\u201d of too few law teachers of quality, he said: \u201cThe sad reality is that when we look for experts to head new law schools and the new faculties, we have precious few to choose from.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thus, there was the \u201cobvious need\u201d to provide \u201cmore uniform but calibrated and better salaries, accompanied by considerably improved terms of service for our teachers\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n
Echoing the prime minister\u2019s remarks, Chief Justice Balakrishnan said: \u201cMany of our law colleges and departments are perennially cash-strapped and struggle to retain qualified and motivated law-teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSome colleges also function in a highly politicized environment, where serious academic pursuits often take a backseat. Instead of establishing more colleges, the first priority should be to ensure that a basic standard of legal education is being delivered in the existing colleges,\u201d Balakrishnan said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
India must aspire to provide world class legal education through a \u201cdramatic reform\u201d of the present system to improve the economic environment and ensure citizens get speedy and affordable access to justice, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Saturday. \u201cWe must dream if we want to make progress of having a world class educational system. Law […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-law-news"],"yoast_head":"\n