Legal Education’s Crumbling State And The Lackadaisical Response To It

Introduction

The academic sessions in most law schools, which includes the famed National Law Universities (NLUs) begin no later than the month of July or August. As of May 2025, students aspiring to join these law schools have no idea as to what is the status of them joining one. The authorities, which includes the exam conducting body named the Consortium of NLUs, and even the judiciary to an extent, are least bothered about even ensuring the proper admission of students in a fair environment. Expecting them to be concerned with the anxiety, paranoia and deteriorating mental state of the students would be nothing short of a far-fetched idea. Perhaps the judiciary is trying to make the young minds cognizant of the dire condition of the litigants in a different way, even before they even join a law school. Among all this chaos and hullabaloo, the hapless students have been relegated to nothing more than pawns of a larger dysfunctional system.

The problems impeding

In order to get admission to most of the National Law Universities (NLUs), one must appear in the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT). However, what options a student is left with when the exam itself is marred by irregularities? Immediately after the exam was conducted on December 1, 2024, a furore ensued among those who appeared for CLAT UG, alleging that not only the provisional answers but even certain questions were wrong. And as things unfolded before the court, the court observed that the allegations did hold a lot of water. But not before a significant amount of time had lapsed. The original case was filed in December only, only for the Supreme Court to hear it after days and rule that not the Supreme Court, a High Court should listen to the case, and ultimately came to the conclusion that the Delhi High Court should have the authority.

No heed was paid to the fact that the exam was one of the national levels, and more petitions may appear too, which would ultimately warrant an intervention by the Supreme Court. An unnecessary delay, which could have easily been avoided, was thus ensued. After several adjournments and delays, when the Delhi High Court did rule on the case and the Consortium did accept the verdict after several deliberations, it appears that we are back to square one on the case. The verdict of the Delhi High Court has been challenged in the Supreme Court, thus again bringing the case back to the Supreme Court. This move was anything but unanticipated. What’s regrettable is that the Supreme Court did not foresee the delays of this case and its failure to play a proactive role, jeopardizing the future of the students. At the end of the day, it’s the students who ended up in a lose-lose situation. More than 4 months into the case, justice still remains elusive for them.

The irregularities marring the exam of CLAT UG 2025 are just the tip of the iceberg. The exam of CLAT generally is involved in controversies. The legal profession claims that law should be accessible to all, yet the exam is accused of catering to the students who come from elite families, with the exam having an unhealthy amount of focus on English. Calls for the exam to be held in regional languages have fallen on deaf ears and have yet to materialize. Furthermore, due to the several irregularities with the exam under the Consortium, the Consortium having a lack of transparency, and its inability to ensure accessibility to all, the Bar Council of India have proposed to conduct the exam. The proposals, however, are yet to materialize.

These were just some of the problems with legal education in India before a person even enters law school. Even after the exams, NLUs are infamous for having an exorbitant fee. The majority of the students, who come from lower to middle-class families find themselves struggling, yet end up paying the fees, some with the hopes of securing a placement, though only a handful of NLUs are seen materializing that even slightly, much to the disappointment of the students, particularly those not having a good socio-economic background.

Conclusion

The problems listed were just the gist of the heaps of perils legal education is facing in India. The National Law Universities were once called “few islands of excellence in the sea of mediocrity”. More than a decade later, we must confront the difficult question of whether the words actually stand true. For a field that claims that justice should be accessible to all, irony strikes hard considering that our potential lawyers themselves are becoming victims of injustice.

 This article is authored by Aditya Raj. He was among the Top 40 performers in the Quiz Competition on New Criminal Laws organized by Lets Learn Law.