REGULATIONS RELATING TO CONDUCT AND EVALUATION OF EXAMINATIONS FOR PROGRAMME LEADING TO LL.M. DEGREE UNDER UNIVERSITY OF CALICUT (Semester Scheme)
(WITH EFFECT FROM 2013 JANUARY TO DECEMBER ACADEMIC YEAR)

  1. (a) These regulations shall be called ‘University of Calicut Regulations for LL.M. course under Semester Scheme from 2012 admission onwards’.
    (b) These regulations shall come into force from the date of approval of the same by The University of Calicut.
    (c) The name of the course shall be Master of Laws (LL.M.)

    2. DEFINITIONS:

  2. Academic Programme shall mean a programme of courses and/or any other component leading to Master’s Degree in Law (LL.M.)
  3. An Academic Year is normally a period of nearly 12 months devoted to completion of requirements specified in the Scheme of Teaching and the related examinations.
  4. Semester System – a programme wherein each academic year is normally apportioned into two semesters.
  5. Course means a component of the academic programme, carrying a distinctive code no.
  6. External examiner shall mean an examiner who is not in the employment of the University of Calicut or in the colleges affiliated to the University of Calicut.
  7. Student shall mean a person admitted to the Law Colleges affiliated to the University of Calicut for any of the academic programmes to which this Regulation is applicable.
  8. University means the University of Calicut.
  9. Principal means the Principal of the concerned Law College affiliated to the University of Calicut.
  10. Registrar shall mean Registrar of the University of Calicut.
  11. Faculty shall mean faculty of the concerned law college affiliated to the University of Calicut.
  12. College means a law college affiliated to The University of Calicut.

 

  1. PROGRAMME CONTENT & DURATION:

    (a) A Master’s degree programme in Law (LL.M.) shall comprise of a number of courses and/or other components as specified in the Scheme of Teaching & Examination and Syllabi, as are approved by the University.
    (b) The minimum period required for completion of a programme shall be the programme duration as specified in the Scheme of Teaching & Examination and Syllabi.
    (c) The maximum permissible period for completing LL.M. programme for which the prescribed programme duration is four semesters, shall be four + 4 semesters. All the programme requirements shall have to be completed in four + 4 semesters. Namely, a student shall complete the course within four years from the date of first joining for the LL.M. Programme.

    4. SEMESTER:

    (a) An academic year shall be apportioned into two semesters; preferably from January to July (excluding mid summer vacation) and August to December.
    (b) The Academic Calendar shall be notified by the University each year, before the start of Academic Year.
    (c) Each of the two semesters shall be of a working duration of about 18 to 20 weeks; inclusive of the time for end semester examinations. Holidays and vacations shall be as per schedule fixed by the Government and University from time to time.

    5. ACADEMIC PROGRAMME COMMITTEE:

    There shall be an Academic Programme Committee at the college level. The Principal shall nominate not more than five faculty members who are regularly engaged in post graduate teaching in the college as members of the Academic Programme Committee, of which the Principal of the College shall be the Chairman. This Committee shall co-ordinate the implementation of the courses for optimum utilisation of resources and timely coverage of the courses (syllabus). The Academic Programme Committee shall meet as and when required but at least once every semester. The Chairman of the Committee shall convene the meetings.

    6. EXAMINATION FEES:

    The Registrar or Controller of Examinations shall notify the fees payable by the students for various examinations, after the same is approved by the University. A student who has not paid the prescribed fees before the start of examinations shall not ordinarily be eligible to appear in the examination.

    7. ATTENDANCE:

    A student shall be required to have a minimum attendance of 75% or more in the aggregate of all the courses taken together in a semester, provided that the University may condone attendance shortage up to 10% for individual students for reasons to be recorded; subject to University rules and regulations prevailing from time to time. However, under no circumstances, a student who has an aggregate attendance of less than 65% in a semester shall be allowed to appear in the semester examination.
    A Student who has been detained due to shortage of attendance shall not be promoted to the next semester and he/she will be required to take re-admission and repeat all courses of the said semester with the next batch of students. The University register number of such student shall however remain unchanged and he or she shall be required to complete the programme within the maximum permissible period mentioned in clause 3(c).
    The college or University has to announce the names of all such students who are not eligible to appear in the semester examination, before the start of the semester examinations. In case any student appears by default, who in fact has been detained by the University or college, his / her result shall be treated as null and void.

    8. EXAMINATION & EVALUATION:

    a. The university shall hold examinations for awarding Master’s degree in Law (LL.M.) as per the prescribed Scheme of Teaching and Examinations and Syllabi.
    b. Examinations of the university shall be open to regular students i.e. candidates who have enrolled with the law colleges affiliated to the University and undergone a course of study in the college, for a period specified in the Scheme of Teaching & Examination and Syllabi.
    c. Conduct of semester-end examinations:
    (i) All semester-end examinations shall be conducted by the University.
    (ii) The schedule of examination shall be notified by the University at least 10 days prior to the first day of the commencement of semester-end examinations.
    (iii) For end semester theory as well as dissertation/thesis/project report/viva-voce/other practicals, examiners shall be appointed by the University.
    d. The evaluation of students in a course shall have two components unless specifically stated otherwise in the Scheme of Teaching & Examination and Syllabi:
    (i) Evaluation through a semester-end examination
    (ii) Continuous evaluation by the teacher(s) of the course.
    (iii) The distribution of weightage for various components of evaluation shall be as below:

For dissertation, the evaluation shall be done and marks awarded by a Committee comprising of an internal examiner, who will ordinarily be the supervisor and Chairperson, and one or more external examiners. The external examiners shall be appointed by the University out of a panel of three or more names suggested by the concerned colleges.
f. Evaluation process for Dissertation/Thesis
The dissertation may be valued by an internal examiner and an external examiner and the mean of the scores may be taken as the marks awarded to the candidate.
If however, there is the difference of 15% of the total marks between the scores of the examiners, the dissertation may be sent to another examiner and the marks awarded by him shall be the final score of the candidate in respect of the dissertation.

9. CRITERIA FOR PASSING COURSES/MARKS AND DIVISIONS:

a. (i) Obtaining a minimum of 50% marks in aggregate in each course including the semester-end examination and the teacher’s continuous evaluation shall be essential for passing the course.
Provided a candidate shall have to secure a separate minimum of 50% marks for each of the courses in the end semester university examinations.
A candidate who secures less than 50% of marks in a course, shall be deemed to have failed in that course.
(ii) A student may apply, within two weeks from the date of declaration of result, for re-checking/revaluation of the examination script(s) of a specific course(s) on the payment of prescribed fees to be notified by the University. Re-checking shall mean verifying whether all the questions and their parts have been duly marked as per the question paper and the totaling of marks. In the event of any discrepancy being found the same shall be rectified through appropriate changes in both the results as well as marks-sheet of the concerned semester-end examination.
b. A student obtaining less than 50% of maximum marks assigned to a course and failing in the course shall be allowed to re-appear in a semester end examination of the course in a subsequent semester(s) when the course is offered, subject to maximum permissible period of (course duration +4) semesters. A student who has to re-appear in a semester end examination in terms of above clause shall be examined as per the syllabus which will be in operation during the subsequent semester(s).
c. A candidate who has secured the minimum 50% marks in each course and as well as aggregate of all courses shall be declared to have passed the LL.M. Programme and shall be eligible for the award of LL.M. Degree.
Further the successful candidates will be placed in Divisions as below:

(i) Second Class: A candidate obtaining aggregate of 50% and above marks but less than 65% marks shall be placed in
Second Class.
(ii) First Class: A candidate obtaining aggregate of 65% and above but below 75% marks shall be placed in first class.
(iii) First Class with Distinction: A candidate obtaining aggregate of 75% and above marks shall be placed in first class with distinction, provided the candidate has passed all the courses in the first attempt.
(iv) Ranking shall be based on the aggregate marks secured for all the semesters together availing the first chance for all the examinations. Separate ranking will not be there for each of the optional subjects.

10. AWARD OF DEGREE:

A student shall be awarded LL.M. Degree if;
(i) He / She has enrolled himself/herself, as a regular student, undergone the course of studies, successfully completed the examinations/dissertation/seminar/other practicals/Viva-voce as specified in the curriculum within the stipulated time and secured the minimum 50% marks in all the courses.
(ii) There are no dues outstanding in his/her name
(iii) No disciplinary action is pending against him/her.

11. Admission and promotion:

1. (a) The LL.M. course shall be full time course. The admission to the Course shall be regulated by the procedure laid down by the Government of Kerala and The University of Calicut from time to time. A candidate should secure a minimum of 50% aggregate marks (without rounding) / 45%(without rounding) for SC / ST in the LL.B examination for being eligible for admission to appear for the entrance test and LL.M. course.
(b) Currently the admission is based on the common entrance test conducted for the purpose by The Commissioner for Entrance Examinations, Kerala. Unless otherwise expressly stated by the Government, the present method for admissions shall continue.
(c) LL.M. course shall be single option course. As and when more than one optional course is offered by the colleges, the students shall be having the option to choose their optional group of specialization immediately after the close of admissions for each batch. The choice exercised by students will be considered in the order of rank secured by them in the entrance examinations. The academic programme committee shall assist the students in exercising their options.
(d) Half the number of total students admitted to each batch
shall be allotted either of the two optionals offered for a batch. Only two optional subjects shall be offered by each college at a time. The exercise of option shall be in writing. Allotment of students into two batches each year shall be done by The principal on the recommendations of the academic programme committee in the order of ranking in the entrance test and on the basis of the written option of the students. The process shall be completed within 10 days
from close of admission to each batch, under intimation to the University.
(e) Option once exercised shall not be revoked/ altered in any circumstance whatsoever. If the intake of a batch is odd number, the academic programme committee shall have the freedom to divide the batches appropriately. No other criteria other than rank secured in the entrance test shall be considered for allotting students into the two batches based on their written option.
(f) If any student fails to exercise the written option within the stipulated time for any reason whatsoever, the Principal in consultation with the Academic Programme Committee shall allot the student to either of the two batches, and such allotment cannot be altered subsequently.
2. No person shall be admitted to the end semester examination after the first semester unless he has undergone a course of study ( securing the required attendance) for the period prescribed for the first semester in these regulations in the prescribed subjects in any of the law colleges affiliated to The University , after taking LL.B of this University or of a university Recognised by this University as equivalent thereto and forward to the University before the date of commencement of the first semester University examination; satisfactory evidence of taken the degree. Admission to subsequent end semester examinations shall also be based on fulfilling all the similar requirements.
(3) A candidate who has not passed all the courses in a semester shall be promoted to the next semester subject to compliance with all the other conditions in these regulations, including the requirements relating to attendance. The Principal should also certify that his/her progress and conduct has been satisfactory in the previous semester.
13. Notwithstanding anything stated in this Regulation for any unforeseen issues arising, and not covered by this regulation or in the event of differences of interpretation, the University may take a decision, after obtaining the opinion/advice of The Dean, Faculty of Law, The Chairman, Board of Studies in Law (PG) and the Principals concerned. The decision of the University shall be final.

COURSE CURRICULUM OF MASTER OF LAWS (LL.M.) Degree Programme

Compulsory Courses:

1. CC001 LAW AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION IN INDIA.
2. CC002 LEGAL PROCESS – I. (Legislative Process and Administrative Process)
3. CC003 LEGAL PROCESS – II (Judicial Process)
4. CC004 LEGAL EDUCATION AND RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
5. CC005 Practical examination (Research Methodology and Law Teaching)
6. CC006 DISSERTATION- based on the optional course

Optional groups:

The constituent colleges may choose the optional groups from the list approved by the university, based on the availability of infrastructure, faculty and other facilities at the commencement of every academic year; and intimate the same to the university.

Considering the demand in the job market, LL.M. program with taxation laws as optional subjects has to be retained. LL.M. in taxation is offered only in a handful of institutions in India and hence is a rare course.
The courses for taxation laws shall be as follows :

GROUP B : TAXATION LAWS

B 001. Fundamental Principles and Theoretical Foundations of Direct Taxation.
B.002 Direct tax Administration and Procedure.
B.003 Fundamental principles and Theoretical Foundations of Indirect Taxation.
B.004 Indirect tax Administration and Procedure.
B.005. International taxation and electronic commerce
A.006. Corporate Finance (Common Course for Business Laws and Taxation Laws)
A 007. Corporate Taxation. Common Course for Business Laws and Taxation Laws)

GROUP C: CRIMINAL LAW

C.001. Principles of Criminal Law
C.002. Offences against vulnerable groups
C.003. Criminology, Penology and Victimology
C.004. Comparative Criminal Procedure
C.005. Criminal Investigation and Forensic Science
C.006. Social-Economic Crimes and Privileged Class Deviance
C.007. Transnational Crimes and Criminal Law