LLM, equivalent legal courses offered online or via hybrid mode unauthorised: BCI

New Delhi: The Bar Council of India (BCI) has said that offering LLM or equivalent legal courses online or through hybrid mode without its approval was unauthorised and unrecognised.

The BCI, as a result, issued an advisory against the proliferation of unapproved Master of Laws (LLM) programmes offered online, through distance or hybrid modes.

The advisory, authored by Justice (retd) Rajendra Menon, former chief justice of the Delhi High Court and co-Chairperson of the standing committee on legal education of the BCI, was sent to all the high courts on June 25 for necessary action.

“It is reiterated that any LLM or equivalent legal programme offered in online, distance, blended, or hybrid mode, or under misleading nomenclature such as LLM (Professional) or MSc (Law), without prior BCI approval, is unauthorised and shall not be recognised for any purpose whatsoever," it said.

The advisory continued, “This includes employment, academic appointments, research registration, or judicial service & departmental promotional eligibility. Such qualifications shall be treated as null and void ab initio, and any reliance placed on them by candidates will be treated as misrepresentation." The expert also urged the high courts to take judicial note of this regulatory position, and ensure no appointments, promotions, or academic decisions were made on the basis of qualifications that do not have the sanction of the BCI.

“The (High) Courts may further be pleased to direct that any candidate seeking appointment or advancement on the basis of an LLM or related qualification must furnish confirmation from BCI that the programme was conducted in compliance with the Legal Education Rules, 2008 and 2020,” he said.

Several institutions, including reputed universities and private centers, offered postgraduate legal education programs through non-traditional delivery formats without securing the mandatory approval from the BCI and these include online-only, blended learning, and open and distance learning models, the BCI added.

“The Bar Council of India has already issued showcause notices and is in the process of issuing it to several institutions, including National Law Institute University, Bhopal; Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur; 0.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat; and National Law University, Delhi, for offering LL.M. or similarly designated legal programmes through online, distance, blended, or hybrid formats without requisite approval,” the letter said.

Justice Menon said some of the institutions sought to justify their programmes by suggesting that they were "executive" in nature, or not equivalent to the traditional LLM degree.

“However, these claims were found to be untenable, particularly where the protected nomenclature 'LLM' was prominently used in advertisements, brochures, and academic communications. The use of 'LLM', a term denoting the postgraduate Master of Laws degree, without parameter approval/recognition from the Bar Council of India constitutes a deliberate attempt to mislead prospective students and misappropriate the statutory and academic status associated with this qualification,” he said.

Such practices, the latter said, were statutorily impermissible, and any degree or qualification earned from these modes won't be recognised for academic appointments, UGC-NET eligibility, PhD registration or judicial services.

“The LLM is not a private credential and it is a statutorily regulated degree. Misusing the nomenclature or circumventing regulations under the guise of ‘executive’ or ‘professional’ LLM programmes amounts to academic fraud,” the BCI said.