The Bar Council of India has recently decided to scrap the One-Year LLM course which was introduced in 2013. The new rules state that the course would be of 2 years with a total of 4 semesters. All current one-year LLM will be valid until these new Regulations are notified and implemented. The rules also include that only Law graduates (LLB, BA LLB, BBA LLB, B.SC LLB) can only take up LLM. The Bar Council also announced a new annual test called the Post Graduate Common Entrance Test in Law (PGCETL) for admission in the LLM course. This new test shall be mandatory to admit the students from the merit list. Until the test is set up, the current system is to be followed. The following are some of the new specifications made in the rules:
- A pass in any integrated Law or other law courses is a compulsory requirement for the new exam.
- No University can give an LLM degree to a student if they have not obtained a Bachelor of Laws degree.
- An LLM degree obtained from a Foreign University, without an equivalent LLB degree shall not be equal to an Indian LLM degree.
- A one-year LLM obtained from any foreign University is not equivalent to an Indian LLM degree. But if the degree is from a highly accredited Foreign University, this may entitle the person concerned to be appointed as a visiting professor at an Indian University. They should be there for at least a one-year LLM degree with one year of teaching experience as a Visiting Faculty/internee faculty/clinical faculty to get their LLM degree in India.
