LLB Course Duration and Subjects: 3-Year vs 5-Year LLB Explained

LLB course duration is three years if you join after a bachelor's degree, and five years if you join an integrated course such as BA LLB straight after Class 12. Both run in semesters, both need at least 30 law papers plus internships, and neither can be done through distance or online mode.

This guide covers the duration rules, the subjects you will study and how a real three-year course is laid out term by term. For admission, fees and colleges offering the Bachelor of Laws, see our LLB course page.

LLB course duration: 3 years or 5 years?

The Bar Council of India (BCI) sets the rules. Its Rules of Legal Education, 2008 recognise only two routes to a law degree that lets you enrol as an advocate.

• Three-year LLB: taken after a bachelor's degree in any discipline, from a university whose law degree the BCI recognises.

• Five-year integrated course: BA LLB, BBA LLB, B.Com LLB or B.Sc LLB, taken after Class 12. The BCI says this double degree cannot be shorter than five years.

The integrated route saves a year because the BCI lets the two degrees overlap: a BA and an LLB back to back would take six years, the integrated version five. The same rule makes a B.Tech LLB six years, because a B.Tech alone takes four.

The marks in the table are the BCI floor. A university can ask for more, and meeting the floor does not guarantee a seat.

Can you finish an LLB faster or alongside another degree?

There is no shortcut. The BCI rules bar lateral entry and mid-way exit from the integrated course, so you cannot join a BA LLB in year three or leave after three years with only the law half. You also cannot register for a law degree alongside another regular graduate or postgraduate course, though short certificates in languages or computers are allowed.

Distance and online LLBs are ruled out as well. The UGC's 2020 regulations for open, distance and online learning list law among the programmes that cannot be offered in those modes. Our note on which degrees are valid online has the full list of excluded subjects.

Attendance is the other constraint. Under BCI Rule 12 you need 70% attendance in each subject to sit its end-semester exam (65% in a subject is allowed only if your overall attendance is 70%). If you plan to keep a job while studying, check class timings before you apply.

LLB subjects: what the Bar Council of India requires

Whichever route you take, the law part has the same core. Schedule II of the BCI rules asks for at least 30 law papers: 20 compulsory, 4 clinical (practical) and 6 optional. An honours LLB adds eight papers from one group, taking the total to at least 38. English is the medium of instruction, and if a university allows answers in another language, English becomes a compulsory paper. The compulsory papers cover the areas every lawyer uses, from contract and family law to criminal law and the Constitution.

The 2008 schedule still names the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code. Those codes have since been replaced, and a BCI circular dated 14 August 2026 reminds universities that the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam have been part of the law curriculum since 2024-25, with added weight on forensic science and digital evidence.

The four clinical papers

• Drafting, Pleading and Conveyance: plaints, bail applications, writ petitions, deeds and wills.

• Professional Ethics and Professional Accounting System: advocacy, contempt law, the Bar Council code of ethics.

• Alternate Dispute Resolution: negotiation, conciliation and arbitration.

• Moot Court Exercise and Internship: moot courts, observing trials, an internship diary and a viva.

The six optional papers come from groups such as constitutional law, business law, international trade law and criminology. Universities may limit the choice to what their faculty can teach, so check the college's own optional list.

LLB subjects term-wise: a real example

Here is how one university lays out the three-year course. The table follows the University of Delhi Faculty of Law's LLB course materials page. Other universities change the order, but the compulsory core stays the same.

Internships during the course

BCI Rule 25 sets a minimum of 12 weeks of internship for the three-year LLB and 20 weeks for the five-year course. No internship in a year can run longer than four weeks at a stretch, and every student must intern at least once with trial and appellate advocates, so you see how lawyers prepare cases and represent clients. The rest can be with NGOs, the judiciary, law firms, companies, regulators or legislatures, as your university allows.

3-year LLB or 5-year integrated: which should you pick?

Pick the five-year course if you are in Class 12 and sure about law. You save a year and get more time for moots and internships. CLAT 2027, which the Consortium of NLUs will hold on 6 December 2026, is the route into the five-year LLB at 26 National Law Universities. Our BA LLB course page covers that route, and our guides to BA LLB subjects and the BBA LLB full form show what the two most common integrated courses teach.

Pick the three-year LLB if you already have a degree, want to add law to a career in business, tax, HR or policy, or only decided on law after college. Your first degree does not have to be in arts or law, and a law degree also opens the door to a master's such as an LLM in corporate law. To compare colleges and fees for the three-year route, go back to the three-year LLB course details.

Frequently asked questions

Get free counselling