Law University in Nagpur has special course to prepare future judges
An L.L.B. degree trains students to become lawyers, but a unique course started by National Law University (NLU), Nagpur, aims to prepare future judges.
An L.L.B. degree trains students to become lawyers, but a unique course started by National Law University (NLU), Nagpur, aims to prepare future judges.
The university started a five-year honours programme in ‘Adjudication and Justicing’ last October with 40 students. The exhaustive course provides training to develop critical legal thinking in students and make them eligible for the post of entry-level judges in district courts, reports ThePrint.
At present, judges in the district courts are appointed through tests conducted either by the state governments or the high courts. However, there have been persistent complaints against the quality of judges and their sense of judgment, which has a deep impact on the cases they handle, especially those concerning critical matters.
Law graduates too can become civil judge or judicial magistrate without the requirement of any experience, but this 10-semester course is unique because it readies students to become judges and are taught how to draft orders, judgments and understand court administration.
If the student, on completion of the five-year ‘Adjudication and Justicing’ course fails to become a judge, he/she can always pursue legal practice.
Justice R.C. Chauhan, a former Bombay High Court judge and a member of the university’s executive council, told ThePrint that the course has been structured to attract the best talent and improve the justice delivery system in trial courts.
University’s vice-chancellor Vijender Kumar said, “There are master degree courses in judiciary in some countries. But this is the first undergraduate course.”
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More than 50 per cent students who joined the course last October are girls. The admissions were done under the guidance of Bombay High Court and oversight of a committee comprising HC judges.
Former Chief Justice of India (CJI) S A Bobde had first mooted the idea of starting a special course for appointing entry-level judges in 2019.
