The Department of Legal Affairs, Ministry of Law & Justice, Government of India, in collaboration with the Bar Council of India (BCI), today organised a National Conference on "Strengthening Legal Education through Integration of Regional Languages" at the premises of the Bar Council of India, New Delhi.

The Conference was graced by Hon’ble Justice Rajendra Menon, Chairperson, Armed Forces Tribunal and Co-Chairperson Standing Committee on the Legal Education, Bar Council of India, Shri Manan Kumar Mishra, Hon'ble Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) and Chairman, Bar Council of India, and Dr. Rajiv Mani, Secretary, Department of Legal Affairs and other dignitaries.

The Conference was organised with the objective of formulating a Ten-Year Perspective Action Plan for promoting Legal Education in Hindi and other Indian languages and the justice delivery system. The event brought together senior representatives of the Central Government, Vice-Chancellors of leading Centres of Legal Education, members of the Bar, representatives of the Judiciary and eminent legal academicians to deliberate upon a structured roadmap for strengthening multilingual legal education in India.

The deliberations focused on developing a phased, structured, measurable and quality-assured framework for integrating Indian languages into legal education while preserving English as an important national and international link language. The proposed framework aims to promote a bilingual and progressively multilingual legal education model to enhance legal comprehension, improve access to justice, strengthen legal aid and clinical legal education, and better prepare future legal professionals for practice before district and subordinate courts.

The participants also deliberated upon the role of technology in accelerating language integration within the legal ecosystem. It was emphasised that emerging technologies, including Artificial Intelligence-enabled translation tools, digital legal repositories, standardised legal glossaries and terminology databases, should be effectively leveraged, subject to rigorous validation by legal and linguistic experts, to facilitate accurate and reliable legal education in Indian languages.

As part of the way forward, the Conference resolved to work towards a National Declaration on Indian Languages in Legal Education, finalise the broad framework of a Ten-Year Perspective Action Plan for phased implementation, and establish a National Steering Committee, jointly anchored by the Department of Legal Affairs and the Bar Council of India, to oversee, guide and monitor the implementation of the proposed reforms.

The Conference reaffirmed the shared commitment of the Government of India, the Bar Council of India and all stakeholders to promote inclusive, accessible and high-quality legal education by integrating Indian languages in a calibrated manner, thereby advancing the vision of equitable access to justice and contributing towards the realization of Viksit Bharat @2047.

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Pranab/Sagar