Law courses mushrooming but without teachers, infra

The five-year LLB has overtaken the original postgraduate three-year LLB, in terms of the number of programmes on offer. There are over 1,600 courses available in each format

- Musab Qazi

The city of Allahabad - now Prayagraj - in Uttar Pradesh is most famous as the site of the 12-yearly Kumbh Mela pilgrimage, numerous ghats and places of historical and religious significance. However, over the last decade, a different entity has become practically ubiquitous in Prayagraj district - Law College.

While the city is home to the largest high court in the country, Allahabad High Court, until the past few years, it had few institutions for legal education. The only options were the faculty of law at the University of Allahabad, which runs one of the oldest law programmes in the country; two of AU's constituent colleges; Nehru Gram Bharati deemed-to-be university; and a few institutes affiliated to the Prof.

Rajendra Singh (Rajju Bhaiya) University (PRSU), earlier known as the Allahabad State University.

Today, the district has more than 100 law colleges, most of them affiliated to PRSU, in addition to a private university offering law courses.

The latest data from legal education regulator Bar Council of India's (BCI) portal suggests that of 80-odd recognised PRSU-affiliated colleges, over 70 have been set up in 2012 or later. Information on PRSU's website indicates that of 744 affiliated colleges, 132 are law institutes and 99 of them located in Prayagraj district, while the rest are spread across the nearby Kaushambi, Fatehpur and Pratapgarh.

The difference in the varsity and BCI figures could be because the latter is only updated till 2023. Also, the year of establishment is missing in some of the council entries for new courses.

Explosive growth