New Delhi: After a Round Table on Legal Education held yesterday, the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has decided to shorten the two-year LL.M course to half.

The proposal gained the consensus of all the legal luminaries who said that the two-year programme served no purpose and the final decision rested upon that of all the stake-holders.

In addition to this, the Round Table, through the 'Professional-Public-Private-Partnership' model, has decided to set up a national-level research institution over the next three years.

The proposal is yet to get the nod of the Planning Commission which is why it is still at the nascent stage even after the suggestion of the National Knowledge Commission (NKC).

The Round Table has further decided to revive the proposal to work towards a model research institution, allowing a comprehensive study in the emerging area of legal jurisprudence and subjects which need research like environment law, patent law and competition law.

This brief could well be handed over to the proposed institution since India has no mechanism for impact analysis of judgments.

The members of the Round Table, aware of the reservations expressed by the Bar Council of India, are exploring ways to introduce legal education at the undergraduate level without affecting the LL.B programme.

The plan also mentions about introducing a new course for para-legals for an year duration.

By the year 2020, a seven member committee including two legal luminaries from the overseas, is deemed to set up in order to identify the challenges in legal education.