BCI will soon bring radical changes in legal education: Justice MR Shah

The Bar Council of India (BCI) will bring radical changes in the legal education system of the country, former Supreme Court judge and head of BCI's Legal Education Committee Justice MR Shah said on Sunday..Justice Shah said Indian lawyers now have to compete with foreign law firms and therefore, radical changes in curriculum and teaching methods is necessary.Therefore, the committee will propose changes in curriculum and the method of teaching as well.“I as chairman of the Legal Education Committee, can say that we are going to propose radical changes. We will propose, we may change curriculum and we may change methods also. Give us some time, we will do it. BCI is committed to better legal education,” Justice Shah said..He said that law schools have been teaching Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Civil Procedure Code (CPC) but time has now come to include commercial law and similar subjects in the syllabus.“I consider BCI as also an institution in itself, the BCI is committed to provide quality education. the emphasis is not on quantitative but qualitative… We have to teach how to argue in virtual courts. BCI is committed to that.”.Justice Shah was speaking at the International Lawyers Conference organised by the BCI, on the topic: 'Evolving Role of Legal Professionals/Institutions’..The former Supreme Court judge stated that there is a burden on the institutions to impart quality legal education and therefore, change is necessary.He also highlighted that in earlier days there was a lot of respect for the people involved in the legal profession but that respect has gone down. "In the earlier days, legal professionals were called vakil sahab. That respect which was accorded to the legal professionals has gone down. the overall image of the legal profession has gone down."