New paralegal course to overcome staff shortage

The ministry of human resource development (MHRD) is planning to introduce a special two-year vocational course to overcome the shortage of paralegal personnel.

Many institutes in the country offer online and campus paralegal courses but MHRD wants a new tailor-made programme to suit modern-day requirements.

It has formed a special committee comprising UGC chairman Sukhadeo Thorat, senior lawyer Lalit Bhasin, legal educator NR Madhava Menon and legal expert Chandrashekhar Pillai to work out the details.

“There is acute shortage of paralegal staff at various levels, even the courts are struggling. The new course will open better avenues for people with interest in the legal area, that too without going for a 3-year LLB course,” an MHRD official said.

Paralegal work includes providing legal aid to the poor, research, drafting, preparation of depositions, document coding and indexing, etc. With a large number of foreign companies outsourcing legal drafting and other works to India, paralegal will soon be an in-demand profession.