Clinical Legal Education (CLE) is not a new concept for Indian law schools. It is at least as old as the 1970s.1 However, despite nearly fifty years of introduction to legal education in India, CLE is still in a young state. The promotion and strengthening of CLE is a desirable effort to guide, prepare, build and inspire not only advocates of social justice, but also the right to bring its language, processes, mechanisms and institutions and their language closer to the masses. CLE, with its macro-goal of achieving social justice, has the potential to bring about such transformation in and through legal education. Legal educators and others2 with a particular interest in social justice have made efforts to establish, promote, empower and guide CLE in India.3 According to the report, the focus was on clinical legal education in 1997 by increasing the number of subjects (curriculum-based subjects) from 16 to 28. The Bar Council of India issued a circular using its authority under the Lawyers Act, 1961, which required all universities and law colleges to review their curricula. Law faculties have had to introduce 4 practical assignments since the academic year 1998-99, which was considered a major step towards the formal introduction of continuing education into the curriculum. The 2nd UGC report, which is of particular interest to CLE, was prepared by a curriculum development committee that was asked to update the LL.B course syllabi. The main objective of continuing education in the program offered at the time was legal aid, social justice and professional responsibility.
The purpose of clinical legal education is twofold. The primary objective is to ensure that students gain hands-on experience of different situations, and the secondary objective is to ensure that social justice goals are achieved by helping those who face legal problems but lack the means or awareness to resolve them.[4] In order to achieve the objectives of the clinical program, the INGU offered various possibilities. In 1997, the Bar Council of India published a curriculum which was done by the BCI using its authority under the Lawyer Act. Universities and law schools across the country have been instructed to revise their curricula.[5] In addition, there was an introduction of 21 compulsory courses and 2 elective courses. Finally, since 1998-99, law schools have had to introduce 4 practical assignments, which was considered an important step towards introducing clinical legal training into the legal curriculum. 21One way to follow Professor Menon`s reference to “socially relevant legal education” and “justice education” would be to examine various expressions he frequently used, particularly in CLE forums and meetings. Some of these include “unmet legal needs of communities”, “legal services for the poorest of the poor, the weakest and the marginalized”, “legal strengthening of communities”, “governance, democracy, rule of law and citizen participation”, “rural work and gram nyayalayas”, “legal services for development as a public enterprise”, etc. In order to explore ideas for socially relevant legal education, among other things, the University Grants Commission (UGC) held regional workshops more than four decades ago. Through this initiative, Professor Upendra Baxi asked: “A law curriculum should be socially relevant while ignoring the fact that India is a predominantly rural country? Or that it is a country full of disadvantages, exploitation and misery? He added: “When large numbers of students and teachers are placed in frequent organized confrontations with `misery and exploitation, disease and malnutrition, poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and misery in the midst of plenty,` turmoil, discomfort and doubt will attack minds in classrooms, libraries and laboratories. The result may well be higher education that is more socially relevant.” See Towards Socially Relevant Legal Education: Synthesis Report on the University Grants Commission`s Workshop on Modernizing Legal Education. www.ugc.ac.in/oldpdf/pub/report/1.pdf.
9, 27. Retrieved 20 December 2020. These questions and remarks are still relevant today and relevant to the search for socially relevant legal education. The second UGC report was prepared by the Curriculum Development Committee, which focused on the particular interest in clinical legal education. Later, they were asked to update the LL.B programs. In addition, the USNSI offers students mandatory and elective courses in clinical legal education. Currently, the compulsory courses to be studied by students are: Clinical Interviews, Counselling, Clinical Integration, Special Integrated Clinic with special two-month internships from the 3rd year to the 5th year of the 5-year LL.B course [6]. Thus, lawyers can help in two ways, by drafting judgments that promote legal aid and directly or indirectly promote the development of clinical legal education, or they can chair committees that oversee legal aid programs.
Lawyers may also bring public interest litigation for instructions that promote the state of clinical legal education in India. It is clear that the courts must provide guidelines to crystallize clinical legal education, the government has taken steps, but a combination of judicial and legislative instructions will certainly encourage the development of such training. Over time, it has been observed that it is clinical legal education that encourages lawyers and jurists to take an interest in human rights issues, and it also encourages them to embrace street law and include more pro bono cases. This leads to the understanding of professional skills in the legal field. The organization of conferences and meetings as well as visits to internal and external legal clinics is also a great advantage in the legal career. 23Information on the idea of smart cities, as developed and promoted in India, is accessible via smartcities.gov.in/content/. Retrieved 20 December 2020. A more effective implementation of social justice and human rights should be the main objective of smart cities. Homes where the most vulnerable residents – children, women, the elderly, people with disabilities and the poor – feel safe, protected and empowered should be called smart. Citizen engagement clinics can integrate these ideas into our thinking and culture, while exploring new horizons for legal education and its role.
9Several students shared their experiences on how clinical courses at JGLS change the way they think about public service. Before these experiences, they thought about life after law school in a commercial law firm that worked late into the night and went to the bar on weekends. 5The Legal Services Authorities Act 1987, established by the Legal Services Authorities Act 1987 at different levels (national, state, district and taluka), has the mandate to implement legal aid initiatives. In 1980, a national committee, chaired by Justice P.N. Bhagwati, was established to oversee and supervise legal aid programmes throughout the country. This committee became known as CILAS (Committee for the Implementation of Legal Aid Schemes) and began overseeing legal aid throughout the country. The introduction of Lok Adalats added a new chapter to the country`s judicial system and succeeded in providing litigants with a complementary forum for the conciliatory settlement of their differences.