Judiciary being one of the important pillars of our country, plays quite an important role in democracy. LLB is a degree in legislative law pursued via a 3-year or a 5-year course. With the law as the core subject, the 3-year and the 5-year degree provides the students with a bachelor’s and an additional degree, respectively.
The 5-year law degree can be easily combined with a bachelor’s degree and attained alongside humanities, science, arts and engineering. These degrees also come in the form of integrated programs. Let’s take a clear look at the differences that come up by taking up these two programs.
Choosing A Law Degree Based Upon Different Criteria
When deciding to pursue a career in law, there are several differences that need to be considered. Alongside, there are differences that come between the two different courses of education. Though it completely relies on the kind of university that you are planning on getting into, even then, there are several legal criteria that bring about a major difference in both of the courses. The 3-year LLB and 5-year CLAT programs differ according to the following:
- The level of the course:
Being a graduate degree, you need to pursue the 3-year LLB program for 3 years. You need to join this immediately as a graduate program and thus concentrate on the law as the core of the subject. On the other hand, the 5-year CLAT is a comprehensive 5-year program. You should easily be able to undertake this program alongside any undergraduate program like LLB.
Though the duration of the courses is 3 years and 5 years, however, you can also go ahead with a number of integrated and comprehensive programs that come with the same.
- The objective of the course:
The 3 year LLB program takes law as its core subject and majorly focuses on the culture of legal knowledge. Students opting for this degree are undertaking law to serve in legal departments. They can well practice their law both in a private as well as a public firm. There are several public sectors that students can work for post a 3-year degree. However, the 5-year degree is solely an addition to the graduate LLB program. This particular degree makes sure to focus on the basics of the graduate level to ensure that students have a firm practice of law in 5 years.
- The career opportunities of the degrees:
Under the credibility of a 3-year law program, a student is allowed to have vast career options given the scope of the university. A student enrolling in a university should do a good part of research for the scope the university is willing to open forward to them. There are several prominent universities that one can go ahead with. However, proper care should be taken to choose one as this is going to open the doors to professional possibilities.
On the other hand, the career opportunities of a 5-year CLAT are not just limited to legal fields. If you wish to, you can also move forward to other fields and make a good career out of it. The job prospects are mostly similar in both cases, and the benefits that both courses provide are also similar.
But the prominent difference between the 3-Year LLB And 5-Year CLAT Programs comes when you look for the eligibility and age requirements as important criteria.
- Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible for a 3-year LLB program, a candidate needs to have a minimum of 45 percent of grade points. Admission to law colleges and universities with a good name and reputation requires you to meet this requirement. Along with this, there are times when you need to appear on the Law School Admission Test or the LSAT.
A student needs to have a minimum of 50% of the average grade in their 12th to be able to seek admission for a 5-year CLAT program. This, however, requires you to take entrance and other exams like CLAT, SET and AILET. Apart from this, there are a range of other exams that are registered by a few university administrations.
- Age requirements of the candidate:
Though the age restriction for the candidate varies from 28-30, the BCI has set a clear law for the age bar to be raised to 45 years. For the 5-year CLAT program, the candidate’s age has the flexibility to stand from 20 to 22 years. Though the BCI has been receiving several criticisms from the law court to increase the age bar, there are petitions put forward for the same.
Several top colleges in India allow a candidate to pass with a well-recognized and credible degree. Some of them are Chandigarh University and Punjab Amity University.
