The Best Law College in India

One thing that is common to almost all the public educational institutions is that they have good faculty members and bad administration. It is somewhat similar for the faculty of law. The teachers are more than great but when it comes to the administration it may be a little troublesome. Generally the problem arises in the delay in getting ID cards, case materials, library cards, examination forms, admit cards and so on. But this isn't much of a trouble since there are helpful seniors who are always there to help you. Also, the people in administration are also not so rude and are pretty student friendly. My overall impression of this college being myself a first year student is much more better than I expected it to be. The faculty has great facilities especially in the new building called the Umang Bhawan (for Law Center 1 and 2). It has elevators, spacious classrooms, a seperate moot court hall, parking facility, canteen, and a huge open space in the backside.

The curriculum of the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi is considered to be one of the best in the country. This has been widely accepted by eminent jurists and great law professors. That is the reason why eight of the sitting judges in the Supreme Court of India are alumnus of this college. Learning is imparted through Bare Acts and through Case Materials. Both of them comprehend each other. The course material of this college has been accepted and recognised as the best set of cases in any faculty of law in the country. There are 6 semesters in total with 2 semesters in each year. In the first year, 5 subjects are taught in each semester, all being core subjects. In the second year, 6 subjects are taught with a combination of core subjects(4) and elective(1) and open subjects(1). In the final year, 6 subjects are taught in the fifth semester and five in the sixth/final semester. Exams are conducted for each semester. The examination is of 100 marks and includes 5 questions for which you get a total of 3 hours. Since most of the law facilities in the country are partly regulated by the Bar Council of India, internal assessments are not conducted in the faculty. Apart from this, 60% attendence has been made strictly mandatory for appearing in the final written examinations. The curriculum has been designed keeping in mind the requirements of litigation and judicial examinations. The cases are regularly updated to include the most landmark judgements of the Supreme Court and various High Courts. The faculty also conducts Moot Court Competitions, has a Legal Services Society, and a Legal Aid Clinic among many other extra-curricular activities. The faculty conducts frequent court visits, parliament visits and also has a Placement and Internship Committee.

The college has a Placement and Internship Committee. It's task is to suggest job placements and internships to students and help them to avail those opportunities. But the college does not provide exclusive internships nor does it invite any companies for placements since law is not a subject where there can be many corporate placements. But having said that, all the law students have to undertake atleast 4 internships in the second and the third year combined. These include internships with a lawyer, with a judge, with a law firm and an NGO. These internships are marked and constitute a seperate paper in the third semester along with moot court and mock trials.

The college regularly hosts various events like Fresher's Welcome, Orientation Ceremony, Moot Court Induction, seminars, moot court competitions, visits to Supreme Court and other courts, occasional visit to the Parliament. Apart from this the student union organises farewell parties, celebration on festivals like Diwali, Holi, etc. The famous K. K. Luthra Memorial Moot Court Competition is the biggest of its kind in the entire country where students participate from colleges across the country. The seminars and workshops are attended by Supreme Court judges and other legal stalwarts and senior advocates.

The fee of the college is ridiculously cheap as compared to various private institutions providing similar facilities and the same level of teaching. The average fee is around ?5000 to ?6000 a year. Apart from that, a fee of ?1800-2200 is charged in every odd semester which includes examination fee, case material fee, library charges, etc. The fee has to be paid through online mode after your admission is secured by getting all your original documents verified by the faculty. The fee break-up is available on the college website.

The college does not offer any scholarships. But there are provisions for partial to full fee waiver for students belonging to economically weaker sections and from SC/ST community. This is a centralised system and is available to every student of the University of Delhi. Since I did not apply for a scholarship or education loan I am not aware of the procedure for availing scholarship. But needy students can contact the university administration for scholarships provided by the university. Apart from this, scholarships are provided by the Government of India for SC/ST, minorities, girl students and EWS students. Those interested in such scholarships may apply on scholarships.gov.in

The campus life here is amazing, one can easily get a lot of help and support from fellow students. It is a common perception about law schools that people are generally more straightforward and do not socialize much. But this perception is totally incorrect. You will find some of the greatest people here with whom you can have long lasting friendships. As of the gender ratio, it is quite balanced. While in some of the sections you may find more females in some you may find more males. Overall it might be around 6:4(male:female). The crowd is pretty diverse which is a unique thing to find in the Delhi University. You will find students from all parts of India coming to study here as well as foreign nationals from Africa, Middle-East, US, Europe, South Asia and many other regions of the world. The faculty of law hosts various seminars, workshops, annual sports mela, fresher's party, orientation ceremony, debate competitions, moot court competitions, field trips and many other extracurricular activities. When it comes to politics and the overall ideological space, the spectrum is as wide as you may think of. There are mainly three student organisations in DU. One is the ABVP(Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad) which is a conservative Hindu nationalist student organisation linked to the BJP and the RSS. The second is the NSUI(National Students Union of India) which is a student wing of the Indian National Congress (INC) and being the more liberal and centrist in its policies. The third is the AISA(All India Students Association) and the SFI(Students Federation of India) being student wings of CPI(M) and CPI(M-L), respectively. They represent the communist and the socialist ideologies. Apart from all this, the common students of the university and the faculty comprise of diverse classes and social identities are themselves naturally tolerant and respectful towards students of other religions, race, caste, sex, region, and class. But instead of this, if a student feels discriminated or is harassed based on his/her identity, there are forums like Gender Sensitisation Committee, Internal Complaints Committee, North-East Students Association among many others where one can register grievances and the committee looks into the complaint and takes strict action against the accused student.

The faculty does not have hostels for itself like other PG courses. The students who require accomodation generally prefer private accomodation but the university has several hostels and the students from this college can apply for them as soon as they secure an admission into the college. The University of Delhi has a total of 17 hostels, including 2 hostels for international students. The system for applying for a seat in the hostel in completely online and the process begins even before the final admission is confirmed. The volunteers from various student organisations are a great support as far as getting hostels is concerned and students must approach them is they face any difficulty in securing admission to the hostels. The hostel fee ranges from ?12,000 to ?13,500 annually of which almost half of the amount is kept as a security which is refundable at the end of the year.

The faculty has a great alumni network having its social media accounts. The seniors are very helpful especially to the freshers in providing them with class notes, basic knowledge about the course and important tips and preparation strategy for the examinations. The beginning of the semester falls at a time when the elections are scheduled to happen Therefore, the seniors will be more than eager to provide you with any kind of assistance and guidance even if you do not ask them to. The freshers must make the most of this period and try to get in touch with them for notes and other information.

I had always wanted to study law and become a judge right since when I was in my 10th grade. Therefore, I started doing an extensive research on the best law colleges in India. I visited various sites on the internet, talked to many professors and all of them advised me to take admission into the Faculty of Law, University of Law. I am not writing this just because I study in this college. I was equally sceptical, if not more, as you are about the choice of the college. But I finally settled with this college and I haven't regretted my decision for once. As far as the admission process is concerned, the university admits students on the basis of an entrance exam. This entrance exam used to be conducted by the University in an offline mode. But from the last year onwards the trend has been completely changed. The exam is now being conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) in an online mode. Last year the online exam was conducted on the 3rd of July, 2019 and the results were declared on the 15th of July, 2019. But I believe the exam was delayed last year and that is why the semester also began at a later period. But usually the exam is conducted in the last week of June or in the first week of July.

The faculty of this college has some of the most recognised names in it, including Padma Shri Prof. Upendra Baxi, Prof. Ved P. Nanda, Prof. M. P. Singh, Prof.(Dr.) Ved Kumari, Prof.(Dr.) Kamala Sankaran, Prof.(Dr.) Vandana, Prof.(Dr.) P. B. Pankaja, Prof. (Dr.) Poonam Pradhan Saxena, Prof.(Dr.) Anju V. Tikoo, Prof.(Dr.) Manju Arora Relan, Prof.(Dr.) Kiran Gupta, Prof.(Dr.) Raman Mittal, Prof.(Dr.) Sarabjit Kaur, among many other current and retired faculty members. The entire faculty of law has around 150 Professors, Associate Professors and Assistant Professors. The average age of the faculty is from 35-50 having a great mixture of young and senior experienced teachers. The faculty members hold a great expertise and experience in their respective fields, with most of having holding Doctoral degrees. Many of them are erstwhile judicial magistrates and our Professor (Dr.) Ved Kumari has been the Chairperson of the Delhi Judicial Academy (DJA).