Legal education in India is not up to the mark and it requires serious reforms. At the moment, the legal education is not professional in nature as it suffers from being excessive academic in nature and is producing law graduates who lack good research and analytical skills.
This fact came to the knowledge of Justice Markandeya Katju, a judge of the Supreme Court, while addressing an audience of law students at the Dr Ambedkar Law University. Justice Markandeya Katju posed a simple question before the law students who found it difficult to answer.
The question was “what will you do if a client approaches you alleging that the cop refused to register his complaint?". The law students failed to give a satisfactory answer to this question. Justice Markandeya Katju showed his dissatisfaction with the practical knowledge of Indian laws on the part of law students. He also showed his dissatisfaction with the Bar Council of India (BCI), the statutory body governing legal education in the country, for prescribing the syllabus which did not include practical training.
Justice Markandeya Katju opined that mere theoretical classes would not bring the result, unless it is supported by practical training classes. The students should get to know the day-to-day legal problems of common man and the way to get rid of them if the students were imparted practical training by way of participation in free legal clinics. Justice Markandeya Katju further said that the legal education system of India needs radical change. Answering a valley of questions posed by the students, Justice Markandeya Katju at times also complemented them for their brilliant queries and their up-to-date knowledge.
The law students and law graduates need to undergo practical legal training in India. They must stress hard upon legal skills development . In the present era of information technology, e-learning can greatly assist them in achieving this task. Online skills development in India is now possible for legal professionals.
There are some very good online legal research, education and training institutions in India. In fact, institutions like Perry4Law Techno Legal Base (PTLB) are even providing research, education and training in techno legal fields. PTLB is the exclusive techno legal research, education and training institution of India and world that provides online education and training in the fields like cyber law, cyber forensics, e-courts, legal research, legal drafting, digital evidencing, etc.
Law students, law graduates, lawyers, corporate counsels, etc must take full advantage of the research, education and training courses of PTLB so that they are not only well versed with the practical aspects of Indian and foreign laws but also well equipped to deal with techno legal issues like cyber law and cyber forensics.
