Techno Legal Skill Development In India

Indian has tremendous workforce but the same required a good practical training as well as skill development exercises. Various studies and research in India have suggested that out of the educated masses only 15 to 25% are fit for being absorbed at job places. This ratio equally applies to legal professionals in India perhaps with a much lower percentage.

The present legal educational system of India is in dire need of reforms. In the name of legal education reform the Bar Council of India (BCI) and Law Minister Veerappa Moily have imposed bar examination upon law graduates that has neither a scientific rationale nor a fair and reasonable handling on the part of both.

Legal education in India has to be at par with international norms and standards. Presently legal education of India is lagging far behind than the required benchmark. This is because India is concentrating too much upon academic studies and almost nothing upon practical training and skill development of lawyers and judges.

India needs urgent educational and legal reforms that must be undertaken as soon as possible. One such area that requires urgent attention is the amalgamation of legal education with information and communication technology (ICT). Presently, there are very few organisations that are using ICT for legal education in India.

Both BCI and Moily have failed to appreciate that legal education has now become techno legal where a legal professional must be aware of both technical as well as legal fields. However, there is a dearth of techno legal institutions that provide legal lifelong learning. One such institution that provides techno legal lifelong learning (TLLL) is managed by Perry4Law Techno Legal Base (PTLB).

At the same time there is also a dire need to have institutions that can provide good continuing legal education in India (CLE in India). PTLB covers both traditional legal fields as well as contemporary techno legal fields.

In short, India is running short of institutions that can impart good techno-legal skill development education, training and coaching. The BCI and Law Minister Moily must address these issues as soon as possible.

Legal Services India: A Legal Platform or Illegal Platform

Bar council of India (BCI) has been trying a lot to improve the standards of Indian legal profession but the one thing that it has to take care of is the lack of research capabilities and legal acumen. A closer scrutiny of most of the articles written by law students of even by national law schools show the poor state of legal research capabilities in India.

Even worst is the platforms that publish the same. They even do not bother to make a preliminary search to ascertain whether the article in questions is original or not? One such platform that is very regular in copyright violations of other is Legal Services India. It frequently publishes copyright violated articles at its platform. At times they are almost complete cut, copy and paste one whereas on numerous occasions its authors pick large number of contents without prior permission and proper attribution.

For example, consider the article titled Copyright law in India published at Indymedia by Mr. Praveen Dalal. The same was published on 14/07/2005 at 15:23. Now consider this article under the same title published on 20 Mar 2008. It is a clear case of copyright violation as the dates suggests themselves.

There are many such articles published at the Legal Services India that is openly and blatantly violating the copyright of others. Now even the administrator of legal services is aware of this copyright violation, it would be a fit case to prosecute them under the provisions of Indian Copyright Act, 1957.

It appears that the legal research acumen of Indian legal fraternity is at its lowest rung. The efforts of BCI to streamline the same are praiseworthy but the task is not easy to manage as long as we have students and platforms like legal services that openly violate others copyright.

Way To Make Bar Examinations Successful In India

By

Praveen Dalal

From August/September 2010 all fresh law graduates or those who have already graduated but not yet enrolled would be compulsorily required to pass a bar examination to be conducted by Bar Council of India (BCI). Perry4Law Techno-Legal Base (PTLB) and its Bar Examination Segment welcome this initiative of BCI as it would go a long way in bringing Judicial and Legal Reforms in India.

Having said that one cannot deny the difficulties and challenges that the BCI and others associated with the bar examination would face. On top of it are the fears and apprehensions of final year law graduates regarding the same. They have fears that their education at respective law school may not automatically empower them to clear the bar exams and they need some more time to exclusively prepare for the bar exam.

Here starts the real problem. If the bar examination is a sub standard one and is mere formality, it would fail to bring required legal reforms in India. On the other hand, if the exam is a real and effective one, the students must hone up their existing legal knowledge and acumen as the pattern of their study and exams at law colleges/schools may be different from that of bar exams.

I must confess that the burden is upon the BCI to tackle this arduous task effectively as well as graciously. On the one hand it has a greater responsibility towards the nation at large whereas on the other hand it must act as a guide and mentor for fresh law graduates. While the first task has been effectively taken up by the BCI the latter one, in my personal opinion, has been totally neglected by the BCI. Till now the BCI has not come up with a concrete plan regarding the bar exams. For instance, there is no information regarding the course contents, syllabus, dates of exam, authorities that would conduct the exams, suggested resources for preparation, institutions with whom it has tie ups, etc.

While PTLB and Bar Examination Segment of Perry4Law have taken a small but significant step in this direction yet the initiative must come from BCI itself. We have started an “Online Platform” where the registered students may have some guidance and insight regarding the course mentioned therein. This is a “Prototype” that may be adopted by BCI or the BCI may (if it thinks fit) rope us for their bar exams initiative.

Whatever the choice the BCI exercises, it has to keep in mind at least two things. Firstly, it has to arrange all the matters pertaining to bar exams precisely and efficiently. Secondly, it has to do this as soon as possible as the dissatisfaction and unrest among the final year students is increasing.

Perry4Law, PTLB and its other Segments wish all the best to the BCI and we have full faith in not only the intentions but also the potential of BCI to conduct bar exams effectively, efficiently and successfully.

PRIMARY SOURCE: BAR EXAMINATIONS IN INDIA

SECONDARY SOURCE: MYNEWS