Former Vice-Chancellor (VC) of National law School of India University (NlSIU), Bangalore A Jayagovind felt the need of separate autonomy of the National law Schools in India outside the framework of the state government.
According to him State Government have different policies which makes the running of National law Universities (NlUs) difficult. “In our country, national law schools are registered under State Governments but the teachers and students are absorbed on national level. This does creates challenges for any premier law schools in our country to sustain with its academic and infrastructural life as per the state legitimates,” said Jayagovind.
Central Government is likely to support in the established of National law school in any state.
Stressing on this factual problem he advised, “It is high time when the Vice Chancellors must evolve a common forum wherein they could discuss about the various challenges faced by their
institutions.”
The reservation of fifty percent seats for the reserved category students at several law schools in India under the top law institutions list has made the intervention of state government obvious. It is because of this intervention the NlUs are fixed in an awkward situation when they are unable to fill up the entire batch of law students in a batch, explained the Former NlSIU VC.
Jayagovind threw light on the need to develop legal education of India and compare it with the world class law universities established at USA, Singapore and Malaysia.
It is to be noticed in the first decade of independent India, legal education was in a bad shape. The beginning of National law Schools here at Bangalore initially in 1988 has made legal education respectable than the engineering and medical streams.
In the recent scenario, quite a large number of NlU graduates prefer working at corporate firms instead of practising at sub ordinate courts or civil courts. Remaining few opt for administrative jobs, journalism or social service.
“In the coming days, ‘The paradise of lawyers called India’ will be acted through law firms and not by personal lawyers practise. So, it would be good if law graduates work at the lower level as well,” suggested Dr Jayagovind.
The Indian Higher Education cropped with the question whether foreign universities must be established here or not is yet another problem India is dealing these days. The Bill on foreign educational institutions before the parliament states foreign institutions must seriously dedicate to Indian Education.
Focussing on this issue, A Jayagovind informed, “All foreign universities are likely to shift to online education system and the government cannot jam this. They might not come up physically as a campus here but would enrol large number of students and teachers in techno-savvy mode. Harvard University is already adapting it.”
The law intellectual stressed on the complicated roadmap of future education wherein there the foreign universities might reject University Grant Commission approval but more Indians are likely to take admission there.
Jayagovind also narrated the relevance of foreign law firms in India. Foreign Chartered Accountant firms are registered as management consultancy services in our country and are very much in practise. “In regard to raising capital, the audit report of these abroad based firms carry higher weightage than the local firms,” Jayagovind said.
Capital Investment is always followed by lawyers from abroad or within a nation. Madras Court has ordered that, in order to be intellectual hub foreign lawyers must be allowed to come and practise in India. Jayagovind said, “Such lawyers can come on ‘fly in’ and ‘fly out’ basis for a temporary period of time without establishing their own office here. They usually work on electronic communication.”