After decades, India, in 2020 welcomed its New Education Policy (“NEP”) which aims to bring a shift in education dispensation, especially higher education. The first NEP was introduced for India in the year 1968, then in 1986 and subsequently in 1992. With the change in society after 1992, the advancement of technology and a transformation in global education, the need for new NEP was felt to change education in India and bring it in parity with the global status.
There are a few objectives of NEP 2020 like – make education accessible to more and more people, give weightage to various languages and use it in education dispensation, make the education globally savvy, common entrance exams, enhance quality of education etc.
The NEP 2020 attempts to give attention to professional education, including legal education in India. Legal education in India is majorly imparted through National Law Universities, state universities or private institutions, offering either a five-year integrated legal course or a three-year post-graduation course. The traditional legal education in India has majorly just been about strict text-book based learning. The NEP shall transform legal education in India beyond rigid structured education to a more flexible and multi-disciplinary mode of learning. This will show an impact on the quality and training of the future lawyers and other stakeholders of the legal profession in India.
Multilinguistic Education
The NEP provides for the consideration of state law institutions to consider imparting legal education in state languages as well besides English. This move intends towards inclusivity and making the legal profession reach the masses and roots of the country where law aspirants might not be very comfortable with the English language at the higher education level. The intention has been to make the legal minds motivated to come into the profession by making it comfortable for them to learn in their language along with English.
Domestic Reconstruction & Global Competitiveness
The NEP aims to produce lawyers who are globally competitive by adopting the technologies available and integrating them to enhance the quality of advocacy. Not just that, the NEP has an objective to provide practical knowledge filled with constitutional values in order to make the budding lawyers become advocates of human rights and rule of law. The government through this ambitious policy of NEP 2020 has directed to create a curriculum which is evidence based, contains principle of justice and actualizes the practice of jurisprudence. By stressing on research-based education and making it a part of the education itself both in the undergraduate and post-graduate phase will overcome the habit of mugging up of concepts which has been the case of education in India since forever.
Legal & Professional Education in NEP 1968, 1986/92, and 2020
| Aspect | NEP 1968 | NEP 1986/92 | NEP 2020 |
| Recognition of Legal Education | Not specifically addressed | General reference to professional courses | Explicit mention of reform in professional education (incl. law) |
| Policy Focus on Law | Not addressed | Indirect; focus on higher/professional education quality | Stresses relevance, quality, ethics, and indigenous knowledge in law |
| Regulatory Body | University Grants Commission (UGC) | UGC + Bar Council of India (BCI) oversight | Legal education remains under BCI; HECI to exclude law & medicine |
| Curriculum | Traditional, theory-heavy | Some modernization and inclusion of practice elements | Focus on multidisciplinary learning, Indian legal tradition, critical skills |
| Globalization | Not applicable | Minimal attention | Encourages global exposure and comparative law in curriculum |
| Technology Use | Not relevant | Early adoption encouraged | Integration of legal tech, e-courts, online dispute resolution |
| Interdisciplinary Approach | Absent | Limited | Strongly encouraged (e.g., law + economics, law + tech, etc.) |
| Access & Equity | General reference to access | More focus on SC/ST/OBC representation | Emphasis on inclusivity, legal education in regional languages |
| Research and Innovation | Not emphasized | Limited promotion through universities | NRF support for legal and social science research |
| Ethics and Professionalism | Implied through general moral values | Not deeply integrated | Core emphasis on constitutional values, ethics, justice in legal training |
NEP 2020: Key Shifts for Legal Education
- Multidisciplinary Learning: Law students can study liberal arts, business, or tech alongside.
- Indian Legal Systems: A Push to include ancient Indian jurisprudence and constitutional values.
- Technological Integration: Prepares future lawyers for digital courtrooms and AI in law.
- Internationalization: Encourages tie-ups with global law schools and comparative legal studies.
- Equity and Language: Promotes offering legal education in local languages, enhancing accessibility.
Challenges Ahead
Although the NEP 2020 sounds promising and ambitious on paper, the major challenge which it shall face is of its implementation. The integration of principles of NEP 2020 with the current status of legal education in India shall face the following major roadblocks:
1. The standards of legal education in India give primacy to the English language. In such a case, imparting legal education in multilingual mode can sabotage the potential of a law student from practicing in the High Courts or before the Supreme Court of India as proceeding before them is conducted in English language only.
2. In an institution like a National Law University, a central entrance examination is conducted, after clearing which students from all around the country get admission in colleges. In such a scenario, the talks of multi-lingual mode of education are not feasible at all.
3. Transformation of institutions into multi-disciplinary centers of education shall demand a lot of funds. Not only that, converting the institution into multi-disciplinary center of education shall demand proportionate opportunities for the new combination of subjects studied. This would require an overhaul in the processes of admissions, policies for employment, entrance in institutions and everything related therewith.
The changes introduced through the NEP 2020 are a second wave of changes attempted in the legal education in India. The first one was the introduction of an integrated legal education in India. Besides the challenges, the NEP 2020 provides a medium through which a thought for change can originate to make legal education practical rather than just learning based. The law institutions shall give a thought to go beyond moot court competitions being the only method of their “practical” training of law students. Blending learning with skill based understanding of the profession is what is the intent of NEP 2020 and which shall be captured by the institutions.
Author: Adv. Varun Singh, Founder, Foresight law Offices India. Views are personal.