From the next academic session, the Bar Council of India has declared to eliminate the one-year master degree programme in law (LLM) course in India. No law university will be permitted to continue with the one-year masters in law programme, which was earlier introduced in 2013. The LLM degree will only be awarded after completing the two-year course spread across four semesters. The Bar Council has also proposed a novel entrance test named Post Graduate Common Entrance Test in Law (PGCETL) for admission to masters legal programmes. These were part of the BCI’s Bar Council of India Legal Education (Post-Graduate, Doctoral, Executive, Vocational, Clinical and other Continuing Education), Rules, 2020, which were notified on January 2.

In addition to discontinuing the one-year LLM degree course, the Bar Council of India has explained that only the LLB students will be permitted to appear for the LLM entrance examinations. The graduate students of any other stream irrespective of individual law subject studied will be considered as part of other courses including Company Law, law subjects under MBA and its likes will not be allowed to appear for LLM.

The Bar Council has further proposed a Post Graduate Common Entrance Test in Law (PGCETL) for all the law universities offering degree programmes for postgraduate students. The details about the PGCETL will be released later and until then all the law universities have been advised to follow their regular admission process.

After the introduction of PGCETL, the law aspirants will have to submit their law entrance test scores for admission into relevant universities along with other required documents proving educational qualifications. The new post graduate programme course based on PGCETL is expected to begin from September, although the dates for PGCETL entrance exams are yet to be released.