It?s going to be yet another first for the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur. The oldest of the seven IITs in the country, the venerable institution will now offer a course in law.

According to Prof. R.V. Raja Kumar, dean of academic affairs at IIT Kharagpur, the law course is part of a programme the institute has taken up to diversify into areas beyond engineering. ?This is essentially to keep up with the changing times and the different requirements for the industry today,? Kumar, who teaches electronics and electrical communication engineering, says.

The areas the IIT is foraying into is as diverse as law and rural development and management. It?s also begun to offer, from the current session, a five-year, integrated masters degree in statistics and informatics and another five-year postgraduate course in economics.

Kumar says the institute plans to start the law course from the next academic session in 2006. It could be a two-year postgraduate degree or a diploma course. ?We are working out the details,? he says.

It will not be a conventional law course. The institute will, essentially, teach laws related to technology and industry, with a special focus on intellectual property rights. Laws relating to information technology are also expected to be part of the course content.

With the recent amendment of the Indian Patent Act in Parliament ? mainly covering the pharma sector ? to comply with the World Trade Organisation?s requirements as a member country, India is now part of a global patent regime. ?There is now a growing demand for lawyers who have specialised in IPR and related subjects,? says Prof. Subhasish Tripathy, in-charge of the IIT Kharagpur?s IPR cell.

In fact, the institute, which has applied for patents of some 118 products it has developed, has already an intellectual property policy in place to carry out its own research and development programmes. ?Tomorrow?s business will be increasingly technology-driven and knowledge-based. Hence, we will need lawyers specialised in IPR,? Tripathy says.

Kumar says the law curriculum is being finalised, but it will include a few engineering subjects, including industrial engineering and industrial management. It will be a residential course open to engineering, science and law graduates. ?We might even allow professional lawyers who want to get a postgraduate diploma or degree,? he says.

The institute has classrooms, but it will need an estimated Rs 5 crore to build other infrastructure necessary to start the course. Kumar says IIT KGP has already written to the ministry of human resources in this regard. At present, IIT Kharagpur lacks a law faculty, which, officials say, will be built up before the course gets started.

The institute intends to launch the course with about 30 students, who will be enrolled after a rigorous nationwide screening that will bear all the hallmarks of the IITs? joint entrance examinations.

Says Prof. K.K. Guin, associate dean of the Vinod Gupta School of Management run by IIT Kharagpur on its campus, ?We have made a mark as an engineering institute of a very high standard. It will be no different when it comes to a law course,? he says.

The legal fraternity is excited by the news. ?The country needs good law schools to impart quality education. We could not ask for more if a world-class institution like IIT Kharagpur wants to teach law to our students,? says Prabir Basu, a lawyer at the Calcutta High Court.