National Education Policy, 2020 and Environmental Sustainability in Legal Education

The National Education Policy, 2020 has replaced the earlier policy of 1986. The new policy stresses on multidisciplinary education with an emphasis on holistic learning of the students. The policy directs that the higher education institutions should include courses in fields like environmental education. In this paper, the author aims to evaluate the current legal education in India through the lens of National Education Policy, 2020 with special emphasis on sustainable development. Law aids in social transformation which is why it is extremely important that legal education becomes more inclusive of the crucial subject of environment and environmental sustainability. Today the whole world is burdened with the perpetually and rapidly deteriorating quality of the environment. The Indian society is especially oblivious of the dire urgency of the need of sustainability. In this backdrop, it becomes all the more important that legal education in India is imparted in such a way so that it encourages sustainable development and also includes multi-disciplinary courses in law and environment. The author also wants to emphasise on the need of including mandatory practical learning in environmental law subjects. Merely studying about the environment and related laws without actually practising its principles is meaningless bearing in mind how crucial it is to protect the environment which is reflecting in the NEP, 2020 as well.