Hyderabad: Are multi-disciplinary courses eluding law students?

Hyderabad: Uncertainty is looming large over the introduction of inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary courses in legal studies. State universities, like Osmania, are planning to introduce new courses and combinations, cutting across the rigid boundaries of arts, science and social sciences.

According to the university sources, it is also exploring the possibility of allowing students to pursue science courses after an under-graduate course in humanities and social sciences.

However, when it comes to legal studies, the universities show no interest in making similar efforts. "Because the approval of courses and curriculum has to be decided by the Bar Council of India (BCI) and the universities have no say in it," said a senior OU official.

However, the BCI has given approvals to run integrated courses like BA, BSc, BCom and BSc conventional courses along with LLB. Similarly, it has also permitted courses in combination with BTech with LLB. Prof S Ramachandram, Vice-Chancellor, Anurag University said, "Blending of different streams should be properly mapped along with career prospects. Besides, awareness should be created on the same among students to take such course to chart out their careers in the challenging and emerging areas. Training faculty to impart such courses is another key issue that needs to be addressed to maintain quality standards."

Speaking to The Hans India, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) Vice-Chancellor Dr V Praveen Rao said, "Combinations like BSc Agriculture and LLB as an integrated course makes more sense." Professor Rao has been advocating starting such courses, particularly against the backdrop of the New Education Policy-2021.

He reasoned that there were umpteen number of legal disputes related to agriculture coming up for adjudication. Certainly, someone who has qualified in agricultural sciences and law would bring the much-needed expertise as well as value addition, than a non-agriculture candidate, he said.

"As of now, I am encouraging students to pursue different courses and not limit themselves to agriculture. Definitely, we will take up the issue and explore the feasibility of starting integrated courses like BSc Agriculture with LLB," he said.

A faculty member of the School of Law, OU said some private universities were allowed to run integrated law courses like BTech with LLB specialising in energy laws and the like. However, for reasons unknown, some courses were discontinued after 2016. "There should be some brainstorming between the BCI, State higher education councils, universities, University Grants Commission, All India Council for Technical Education and other apex regulatory bodies," he said, adding that to offer new courses in combination with legal studies to allow students catch up with the fast-changing technical and legal fields needs a combination of expertise and skill sets.