A robust legal framework in a magical world is to help train India’s lawyers, after a university in Calcutta announced plans to use the Harry Potter books to teach students about prejudice and jurisprudence.

The National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS) is offering a new course that encourages students to discuss legal aspects of the fictional universe weaved by JK Rowling - including institutional bias against house elves and muggles - that could be equated to real life, such as caste and workplace discrimination laws.

The course, entitled ‘An interface between Fantasy Fiction Literature and Law: Special focus on Rowling's Potterverse’, will be an non-compulsory course for students taking their law degrees.

The module’s tutor, Assistant Professor Shouvik Kumar Guha, said: "This course is meant to be more of an experiment. It will take both me and the students out of our comfort zones.

"In law schools, people get a very specific set of subjects. The curriculum revolves around the hard letter of the law, case laws etc. Given the fact that this course lasts about five years, students also get bored," he told India Today TV.

According to a statement by the NUJS: “In Potterverse for example, The Ministry of Magic uses its representatives to torture children for daring to tell the truth, and imprisons or even executes its citizens without the benefit of due process of law.