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a. LL.Ms are not considered of primary importance. And, while it has something to do with so many other things (like CLAT LLB being more competitive, etc.), it is primarily because your footprint in the university will be for less than a year.
b. That being said, few universities took good care of their LL.Ms like NLU Delhi took. The undergrads were much more welcoming, integration was not a problem, the public law cohort was led by a solid group of professors like Aparna, Mrinal, Niraj (Kumar), etc., who were awesome. Trust me, the time is so short, you might not end up learning anything at all, but being in that environment, seeing larger-than-life profs was truly inspiring for me (a big reason why I ended up in academia was my experience at NLUD).
c. That said, most good profs have left NLUD and their private or public law isn't as good as it used to be.
d. Coming to your point specifically, let us consider your end goal to be the judicial services (as you mentioned). Will it be efficient to uproot everything (reading hours and hours of bare acts, judgment writing, etc.) and go to Bangalore and then again within the blink of an eye come back to Delhi? Logistically, NLUD makes more sense. They still continue to hold the policy that boys wont be given on campus housing. So that way you are not obliged to stay on campus. You save money.
e. Let us come to what is taught. LLMs, if done right, will seldom teach you your bare acts. It will reach deep down to theory and philosophy of which ever area you wish to specialise in. Knowing the group that teaches in NLSIU, it will be a complete detour from your judiciary goals.
f. I, of course, am taking nothing away from teachers at NLUD. Some in comparative public law will give you a run for your money. However, it will be far more manageable than NLSIU.
Very informative and apt.
a. Coming to specialisation. It does not matter. If you want to apply for a corporate job, they won't care about your LL.M. Law firms won't hire you because you have a specialisation in corporate law. Unless you are specifically interested in a specialisation, it does not matter.
b. That said, if you end up not clearing your judicial services exam (which remains a possibility). You will use this master's as a gateway to Indian legal academia. Interestingly, Indian legal academia does not consider domestic LLMs to be of much repute (funny, eh?). From what I have realised during your LLMs, you try to convince a professor (who won't be, because they will all know that you will pursue government services after this) to hire you as an RA. Trust me, the entry barriers to this market are much higher than actual monopolies.
c. If you end up getting a job in academia, know this: you will have two papers - bread and butter (that you do for earning a living) and your specialisation (that you do for yourself). A common specialisation, as much as you might want to think otherwise, makes your competition tougher. Advertisements for AP might not mention these specialisations, or you end up competing with so many others who do. So a general LLM works better in the long run.
d. However, a specialisation might actually open a door for a future master's in a good foreign university after a few years of work. I hope this helps.
Bottom LINE: NLUD for you. Don't specialise.
And I would really like to see how being taught by 'big names' actually translates into employability for you LLM 2024-2025