Shortage of candidates for LLB course

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State Government is likely to issue a Government Order effecting an amendment in the prospectus so as to enable more students qualify the entrance examinations for the LLB course as there was a shortage of eligible students for the five-year integrated LLB programme.   The shortage followed introduction of a new criteria on eligibility for admission. Following the introduction of the new eligibility criteria for the entrance examinations, only 147 students have qualified in the entrance for the five-year LLB course. The total number of seats available for the course in five law colleges is 320. This mean a shortage of 173 eligible candidates. The fall in the number of students qualifying the entrance this year followed the decision of the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations (CEE) to enforce the rule that the candidates should secure a minimum of 25 per cent marks for general category and 20 per cent marks for SC category in the entrance. Till last year, there was no cut-off marks.So there was no shortage of students who  qualified for the entrance examinations. CEE B S Mavoji told Express that the new criteria was on the basis of the prospectus approved by the State Government.  Only the government can make amendment to the prospectus.  This can be done only if someone submitted a petition for the same, he said. The total number of students who wrote the entrance examinations for LLB course was around 1200. The examinations were for 600 marks and the minimum marks needed for general candidates to qualify the entrance examinations was 150.  Sources said that law college principals had suggested the need for introducing the cut-off marks as the quality of students were found to be very low.