The Course offered by the Birla Global University Bhubaneswar, is the One Year LL.M. Degree, which is in conformity with the UGC Guidelines for introduction of One Year LL.M. Degree Programme, 2012. (Notification dated 18.1.2013).
Admission to the LL.M. Degree Course of study shall be open to those candidates who have passed the Three-Year LL.B. Degree Examination from a recognized University or Institution after Graduation under 10+2+3+3 pattern; or Five Year LL.B. Degree Course under 10+2+5 pattern as is recognized by this University as equivalent for the purpose of LL.M. Degree Course and have secured not less than 50% marks in aggregate for the general applicants, and not less than 45% marks in aggregate for the SC and ST applicants, in the LL.B. Examinations.
The University shall conduct LL.M Entrance Test (LET) for each academic session. Admission shall be made according to merit in the LET subject to the fulfilment of eligibility requirement as determined by the University and availability of seats in LL.M. Course. The students who have passed the CLAT or LSAT examinations shall also be allowed to join the course subject to availability of seats.
| Course | Fee per Semester (INR) | No. of Semesters | Total Course fee (INR)* |
|---|---|---|---|
| LL.M. | 75,000 | 2 | 1,50,000 |
Duration of the course is one year, arranged in two semesters. The intense academic activity during each semester will be for at least 90 days of teaching/research/practical assignments/seminar presentations focusing on the specialization offered in and outside the classroom.
Students are allowed a maximum of two years from the date of admission to complete the requirements of the degree.
The Programme will be of Twenty-Four (24) Credits, comprising of:
i. Three (3) Mandatory courses of three (3) Credits each;
ii. Six (6) Optional/Specialization courses of two (2) credits each;
iii. One dissertation of three (3) Credits.
Every student has to secure a minimum of Seventy five percent (75%) attendance in all the subjects taken individually in each semester to be eligible to appear in the end semester examination.
However, shortfall in attendance may be condoned on grounds of illness of the student, or on other special grounds, such as co-curricular/assigned University academic and administrative activities authorized by the Centre for PG Legal Studies, and approved by the Dean, School of Law.
The evaluation of the students in the course shall be continuous.
Each paper shall be evaluated for 100 marks. The components are:
(a) Mid Semester Examination for 25 marks. The duration of the examination will be for one and half hours.
(b) End Semester Examination for 50 marks. The duration of the examination shall be for two and half hours.
(c) Activity Based Evaluation: The individual faculty of each paper may divide the 25 marks into one or more components like research article/ Seminar Paper/ Research Project/ MCQ test/ Presentation/ or any other of 25 marks.
Provided that:
i. While assigning the research topics, the last dates for submission of each component and presentation/viva shall have to be notified.
ii. Viva/presentation shall be allowed only after final submission of the research project/article.
Dissertation is an integral component of the LL.M. Program. Topics of Dissertation shall be proposed and submitted by students within six weeks of the commencement of the First Semester. The Centre for PGLS will assign the guides to the students for their Dissertations.
The students shall finalize their Dissertation proposal after consultation with the Guide within 90 days of the commencement of the Academic year, or within a date notified by the Centre for PGLS.
The Dissertation Proposal shall contain
(a) Brief statement of the Research Problem, Literature review, research objective, research questions, relevance of the study, Research design, time frame and scheme of chapters.
(b) The word limit is 3000 words.
(a) The Dissertation should conform to the standards of a well-documented research thesis.
(b) The word limit for the Dissertation shall generally be between 15,000 to 18000 words, excluding table of contents, table of cases, table of statutes, abbreviations, foot notes, bibliography, appendix etc.
(c) The cover page, Supervisor’s certificate, student’s declaration and the preface shall be as prescribed in the Annexure.
(d) The date of submission of the Dissertation shall be March 31, of the Academic Year or a date notified by the Centre for PGLS.
(a) The Centre for PGLS shall ensure that every student completes his/her academic assignment including Dissertation within the stipulated time.
(b) In extreme cases of hardship and due to circumstances beyond the control of the student concerned, the Centre for PGLS may recommend condonation of delay in submission of any assignment.
(c) The Procedure
(a) The Dissertation shall be evaluated for 100 marks
(b) The evaluation of the Dissertation shall be done by the Guide and an External Examiner, who shall be appointed by the Vice Chancellor from a panel of experts submitted by the concerned Guide.
(c) The evaluation shall be done separately by the Guide and the External Examiner. The average marks of the two shall be the final marks.
(a) Students shall submit their written seminar paper/assignments and Dissertation, self-certified as original work. Plagiarism shall constitute a serious academic mal-practice.
Plagiarism, unfair means and mal-practices in examinations, and other academic misconduct shall be dealt with as per University Regulations.
(a) A student of the LL.M Programme shall not be permitted to pursue any other full-time programme/course in this University or any other University, during the duration of the course.
In case a student leaves the programme after passing the first semester and joins a part time/full time programme/course anywhere, he shall be debarred from further continuing the LL.M programme.
A student is required to secure a minimum of 50% of marks in the seminars/ projects/ assignment/ mid-term examination and end-term examination taken together.
i. Until the minimum standard in seminar/project assignment etc., is fulfilled by a student, he/she may revise/ repeat and submit the component of the assignment/ examination.
ii. The Centre for PGLS will formally resolve on specific issues of repeat performances, and take necessary approval from the Dean.
i. Computation of SGPA and CGPA
As per the UGC recommendations the following procedure shall be followed to compute the Semester Grade Point Average (SGPA) and Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) is adopted:
i. The SGPA is the ratio of sum of the product of the number of credits with the grade points scored by a student in all the courses taken by a student and the sum of the number of credits of all the courses undergone by a student, i.e
SGPA (Si)= ∑(Cix Gi) /∑Ci
where Ci is the number of credits of the course and Gi is the grade point scored by the student in the course.
i. The CGPA is also calculated in the same manner taking into account all the courses undergone by a student over all the Semesters of a programme, i.e.
CGPA = ∑(Ci x Si) / ∑ Ci
where Si is the SGPA of the Semester and Ci is the total number of credits in that Semester.
ii. The SGPA and CGPA shall be rounded off to 2 decimal points and reported in the transcripts.
| Course | Credit | Grade Letter | Grade Point | Credit Point Credit x Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Course 1 | 3 | A | 6.5 | 3 x 6.5=19.5 |
| Course 2 | 3 | A+ | 7.0 | 3 x 7.0=21.0 |
| Course 3 | 3 | B | 5.5 | 3 x 5.5=16.5 |
| Course 4 | 2 | A | 7 | 2 x 7=14.0 |
| 11 | 71 |
Thus, SGPA = 71/11 = 6.45
| Semester I | Semester II |
|---|---|
| Credit 11 | Credit 13 |
| SGPA:6.45 | SGPA:6.96 |
Thus, CGPA = 11 x 6.45 + 13 x 6.96/24 = 6.72
ii. Transcript (Format): Based on the above recommendations on Letter grades, grade points and SGPA and CCPA, the Board of Conducting Examinations may issue the transcript for each Semester and a consolidated transcript indicating the performance in all Semesters,
Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) is deduced at by dividing the sum of the Grade Values and the Course Credits in each course by the total number of credits in all the courses as per following table:
| Grade | Grade Point | Percentage | Division |
|---|---|---|---|
| O | 10 | 75 and above | Outstanding |
| A+ | 9 | 70-74 | Excellent |
| A | 8 | 65-69 | Very Good |
| B+ | 7 | 60-64 | Good |
| B | 6 | 55-59 | Above Average |
| F | 00 | Below 50 | Fail |
Letter grades O, A+, A, B+ and B in a course mean that the candidate has passed that course.
The F grade denotes poor performance, i.e., failing in the course. A student has to appear at subsequent examination(s), as per the regulations in all courses in which he/she obtains “F” grade, until a passing grade is obtained.
Letters ‘Ab’ means Absent, ‘UM’ means Unfair Means, ‘R’ means Repeat and ‘I’ means improvement wherever used in the Score Sheet.
After tabulation the University shall award grace marks as per the following guidelines:
i. A student who fails only by three (3) marks in an individual course shall be awarded grade “P” (in place of grade “F”) of Grade Point 5 in the concerned subject.
ii. Grace marks will not be awarded for making up shortfall in minimum SGPA/CGPA or improving the grade.
Provided that the SGPA and CGPA shall be computed up to 2 places of decimal. .
A candidate who has passed in all the papers/ courses of I & II Semester/Trimesters of the One Year LL.M program taken together shall be declared as ‘Passed’. Such passed candidates will be awarded with the division/grade according to the following performance criteria, as mentioned in above table.
Marks below 54.5 will be reckoned as 54.0 while the marks 54.5 and above will be considered as 55. The same criteria will be applicable to 59, 64, 69, 74 and 79 as above percentage of marks as at column 3.
(1) Ranking shall be given to only those candidates who pass all the courses of the programme in one attempt, and without taking any extension for delayed submissions of dissertation etc.
(2) Notwithstanding any provision in the Regulation to the contrary, the student who, having been duly admitted to a regular examination of the course, but was unable to take that examination in full or in part due to some cogent reasons, however completed the course with in the stipulated time period will be eligible for ranking. The marks obtained by him/her at the aforesaid examination shall be considered as the basis for the University ranking and other distinctions.
(3) In order to get the benefit of this provision, the student should claim that he/she is eligible for this benefit and get a decision in writing from the examination department after proving his/her eligibility for ranking.
Candidates who have completed all the courses cumulating to requisite credits and Dissertation and obtained at least a ‘B’ grade in all courses and Dissertation and secured Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 5.5 out of 10 shall be awarded the LL.M. (Master of Laws) Degree.