DSNLU Vishakhapatnam students were set off on an indefinite protest after a July order by the Andhra Pradesh government purporting to set up a “Nalsar type” national law university (NLU) in the state, reported the New Indian Express.

After the split of Telangana from Andhra Pradesh Nalsar Hyderabad, which is in the Telangana region, is no longer Andhra Pradesh’s NLU. Andhra Pradesh state chief secretary IYR Krishna Rao “directed officials to initiate action” to set up an NLU in the state, according to The Hindu, thus overlooking the existence of DSNLU.

Over 550 DSNLU LLB students and some LLM and PhD students reacted to the consequent government order GO MS 65 by going on an indefinite strike since Friday asking that the government either strengthen the six-year-old DSNLU or merge it with the proposed NLU, reported The Hindu.

While the protesting students are worried that DSNU will lose recognition if another NLU is established in the state, DSNLU vice chancellor RGB Bhagavath Kumar told The Hindu that there was no such threat to DSNLU’s existence and that he had already met the HRD minister and explained the situation to him. He said that the HRD minister is scheduled to meet the state chief minister (CM) this week.

Five DSNLU students met the CM today and requested that their university be upgraded to the “Nalsar-type law university” that the government order proposes to establish in Andhra Pradesh. They said that they were worried about blocking of state grants to DSNLU and the shifting of opportunities to the new NLU, and would not end their protest until the issue was addressed, according to the NIE.