In Ajay Vijh v. Indian Banks Association [2026 INSC 670], the Supreme Court of India directed the Bar Council of India to institutionalise a culture of Continuing Legal Education (CLE), and suggested that the Bar Council consider establishing a National Legal Academy (NLA) for the continuing education of advocates.
While considerable attention has been paid to legal education at the entry level — through law universities and professional examinations — there remains a glaring gap in institutionalised learning for advocates after enrolment.
Law, and the knowledge required to practise it, is ever evolving. Equally, the techniques of persuasive advocacy and adjudicatory method call for continual refinement. Rising societal expectations of inclusiveness, accountability and transparency require lawyers to equip themselves not merely with updated legal knowledge, but with an evolving sense of ethical and social responsibility. Statutes are amended, regulatory frameworks shift, constitutional doctrine develops, and judicial precedent continually reshapes our understanding of the law. With growing technological infusion in the profession and the rising complexity of commercial and financial transactions, it has become all the more necessary for lawyers to stay current and professionally equipped.
The importance of CLE has repeatedly engaged the attention of expert bodies in India. The 184th Report of the Law Commission proposed substantial reforms to the Advocates Act, 1961, aimed at institutionalising continuing legal education and raising standards of professional training. Among other things, the proposed amendments contemplated the promotion of continuing education in specialised fields of law, practical training for advocates, and institutional mechanisms to raise standards of legal education and professional competence.
A further, equally important objective of continuing education is the transmission of the profession’s unwritten traditions and values to younger lawyers. Professional conduct and competence are shaped not only by real-time practice, but by long-established conventions of fairness, collegiality, courtesy, respect for courts, and service to clients. These time-tested practices form the cultural capital of the Bar, and must be consciously preserved and passed on through structured mentoring and training.
There is a pressing need to institutionalise learning for the legal profession on a continuing basis. Episodic seminars and conferences must give way to more serious, sustained engagement. What is needed is a full-time academy — a National Legal Academy (NLA) for lawyers, on the model of the National Judicial Academy established for the training and capacity-building of judges. Such an institution would enable structured post-enrolment learning, and strengthen professional competence, ethical awareness, technological adaptability, and long-term planning for the Bar. The Bar Council of India must now invest its energies in institutionalising this body.
