The Supreme Court, while hearing petitions challenging the Bar Council of India’s (BCI) now-rescinded decision to scrap the one-year LL.M. programme and derecognize foreign LL.M. degrees, suggested convening a meeting of all stakeholders. The Court emphasized the need to resolve outstanding issues, particularly the requirement of one-year teaching experience for the recognition of one-year LL.M. degrees.
A bench comprising Justices KV Viswanathan and N Kotiswar Singh noted that the sole surviving issue pertains to Clause 20(3) of the BCI’s notification dated 02.07.2021, which mandates one-year teaching experience for the recognition of one-year LL.M. degrees, whether obtained from an Indian or foreign university. The Court indicated that if the matter remains unresolved through discussions, it will proceed to decide the issue on merits.
It was further observed that the controversy surrounding the scrapping of the one-year LL.M. programme had been settled through a resolution dated 07.03.2021. The resolution affirmed that the programme should continue, provided it remains an intensive course conducted by Centres of Legal Education with dedicated postgraduate legal study facilities, adequate faculty, infrastructure, and a library.
During the hearing, it was also brought to the Court’s attention that BCI had issued a circular on 20.05.2024, stipulating that only individuals with a recognized foreign LL.M. degree, including requisite teaching experience, would be eligible for further studies in law. As this circular was not directly challenged in the petitions, the Court granted time to the petitioner to seek an appropriate amendment and directed responses from the Ministry of Law and Justice, the Ministry of Education, and the University Grants Commission following such amendment.
The petitions were filed by law student Tamanna Chandan Chanchlani (January 2021) and the Consortium of National Law Universities (February 2021), challenging BCI’s decision to abolish the one-year LL.M. programme. Among the key arguments raised was that the Advocates Act, 1961, empowers BCI to regulate legal education only concerning qualifications for enrollment in legal practice, whereas an LL.M. degree does not serve as a prerequisite for enrollment.
In March 2021, BCI had assured the Court that the Bar Council of Legal Education (Post Graduate, Doctoral, Executive, Vocational, Clinical, and other Continuing Education) Rules, 2020—which sought to eliminate the one-year LL.M.—would not be implemented that year. However, subsequent circulars and notifications continued to impose the one-year teaching experience requirement for the recognition of such degrees.
Advocate Rahul Shyam Bhandari represented the lead petitioner, Tamanna Chandan Chanchlani, who challenged the condition that her foreign LL.M. degree would not be valid in India unless she completed a one-year teaching program in the country.
Case Title: Tamanna Chandan Chachlani v. Bar Council of India & Ors., Writ Petition (C) No. 70/2021 (and connected case).
