Nalsar Hyderabad
Lawyer myths: NLSIU Bangalore grad and Singapore’s Nanyang Tech B-school lecturer Krishna Udayasankar has penned down a mythological trilogy – the Aryavarta Chronicles. Interview by [Bangalore Mirror]
TOI didn’t defame: The Times of India is off the hook for criminal defamation after the Madras HC dismissed the Tamil Nadu government’s case against the paper for a 28 March news item exposing an irregular public auction. “The court taking cognizance of a complaint against the press must follow due diligence. Before taking a prima facie view, the news item should be analysed and an attempt should be made at least to indicate the basic reasons, which would attract the offence of defamation and as to whether the news item made a reference to the government or minister with an intention to defame or tarnish the image,” said the HC judge [TOI]
SC Tarun Chatterjee to UP HRC: Former Supreme Court justice Tarun Chatterjee has been appointed as the UP state human rights commission’s chairman [Jagran Post]
Dec 16 rape confirmation: The Delhi HC has begun confirmation hearings for the death sentence reference by the Saket trial court in the 16 December Delhi gang rape case [PTI]
Law school paycheques: ET reports breathlessly that national law schools have broken the business consultancy glass ceiling with Bain Capital creating its first legal position after hiring from NLSIU Bangalore this year – also the campus from where McKinsey and Deutsche Bank have made an offer each so far. At Nalsar Hyderabad, between 25 2014 graduates hired so far the average salary is, reportedly, Rs 14.5 lakh per annum, while the highest international pay package is 40,000 pounds. The average salary at NUJS Kolkata is Rs 9 lakh per annum – marginally up from last year
A Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2012 examinee lost out on a Nalsar Hyderabad seat due to a mistake in last year’s question paper, the Delhi high court has held.
India sides with Obama: Salman Khursheed, former law minister, defends US spies’ electronic snooping, saying it’s not “snooping” and “only computer analysis of patterns of calls and e-mails sent”. Minister gets slammed by rivals [Hindu]
Niche education: Law colleges have increasingly started offering ‘niche courses’ such as nuclear, space, business, cyber crime and other laws, reports [Business Standard]
Rape trial access: Foreign correspondents petition Delhi high court to cover Delhi gang rape trial day-to-day [Deccan Chronicle]
Destressed Nalsar: An Andhra Pradesh HC bench told the University Grants Commission (UGC) to examine proposals made by Nalsar Hyderabad’s nine-member committee to reduce stress and suicides of students [New Indian Express]
Dominant ratings: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is to probe whether TV rating agency TAM Media Research has abused its dominant position [Times of India]
Bombay in Tamil: Bombay HC allows litigant, who doesn’t speak Hindi, to depose in Tamil [Business Standard]
Rape compensation PIL: Bombay HC to hear PIL proposing to set up fund to compensate victims of sexual violence [Times of India]
Judges’ busy hols: Delhi high court rejects PIL asking for a reduction in judges’ holidays, arguing that “most judges spend a substantial part of vacation time in writing the judgments” [WSJ] A similar petition was also filed in Chennai in May
Pro-India DOMA: The US’ pro-gay-rights Supreme Court verdict may be a boon for Indian jurisprudence [Mint]
Ramlu wants moolah: RMLNLU Lucknow on Saturday decided to raise its fees from the current Rs 80,000 per year to an, as yet, undecided amount, which “will be at par with other national law schools”. However, “the university will consider the financial status of students who come from UP before finalising the fees”, according to university sources [TOI]
CCI short staffed: The Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) director general AK Chauhan has asked for direct recruits for his office up to at least 25 per cent of the CCI’s total employees, after being faced with a manpower crunch. [ET]
Inadequate drug tests: Serial PIL filer, who started a PIL against Ranbaxy in the Supreme Court this month, has argued that the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) suffers from inadequate infrastructure and staff shortages, causing new drugs to be approved for the Indian market by short-circuiting testing (and in some cases not testing them at all on Indian patients) [BS]
Outlook ranks NLS: Outlook India magazine ranked NLSIU Bangalore as India’s “best” law college, ahead of Nalsar Hyderabad, NLIU Bhopal, NUJS Kolkata, ILS Pune and NLU Jodhpur, Symbiosis Pune, GNLU Gandhinagar. Ninth was Amity Delhi, followed by New Law College Pune BVDU, Jamia Islamia Delhi, VHU Varanasi, MS Ramaiah Bangalore, Osmania University Hyderabad and Bangalore Institute of Legal Studies [Ranking, via Bar & Bench]. Rival weekly India Today ranked Nalsar Hyderabad as India’s “best” law school last week. Legally India has reduced coverage of third party law school rankings since last year.
Nalsar tops India Today: Nalsar Hyderabad displaced NLSIU Bangalore at first place in India’s top 25 law colleges this year according to India Today. NLSIU, Delhi University, NUJS Kolkata, NLIU Bhopal, GNLU Gandhinanar, Symbiosis Pune, NLU Jodhpur, ILS Pune, AMU Aligarh, BHU Varanai and Amity Law School Delhi follow Nalsar, in that order. [Rankings via India Today] Legally India has reduced coverage of third party law school rankings since last year.
Sweeping marriages: As social media buzz continued about the Madras HC maintenance order on sex and marriages, former Madras HC judge K Chandru “warns against the tendency to make sweeping statements in family matters”, saying that the Justice CS Karnan’s judgment reported yesterday is likely to be “misunderstood” by subordinate courts, which might force people into relationships merely because they have had sexual intercourse. [Times of India] Karnan, in turn, today defended the judgment, saying it was misunderstood, and “not only for the purpose of giving relief to the victim woman, but also to maintain the cultural integrity of India” [Hindu]
Suicidal state of affairs: “Treating a person who is driven to take such a drastic step as a hard-core criminal violates basic human dignity in a way few other actions do,” argues psychiatrist Dr Ashoka Jahnavi Prasad about the law criminalising suicide attempts. He says that India should follow the example of 59 countries who have decriminalised attempted suicide. [Newslaundry]
Anti-PRISM PIL: Ex-Delhi University law prof, Professor SN Singh, files PIL to stop government using US internet companies’ services, and prays for government to take action against for breach of privacy, after US internet companies were revealed to have shared data of non-US citizens with US spies in leaked top secret documents [PTI]
At least 50 CLAT 2013 candidates were reshuffled to different colleges two weeks after the first results were first released.
Nalsar Hyderabad hired 14 full-timers & 16 non-permanent faculty members for ‘academic ambience’.
Nalsar Hyderabad relaxed its attendance requirement from 95 per cent to 75 per cent semester and reduced the number of academic research papers to be written by students per semester from five to one, according to The Hindu.
The law school has also introduced the “restorative justice system” on campus; e.g., students found guilty of cheating will be penalised by working in its library. The administration plans to also take “steps” like introducing film festivals on campus.
Nalsar Vice chancellor Faizan Mustafa told The Hindu:
“We are hoping that our steps to make academic calendar of the student less stressful are implemented by other universities… Our students have to write only one academic research paper and the remaining four papers can be based on their personal interests such as music, movies, book review, etc”
Nalsar had held a workshop in April on “Restorative Justice Procedures in the Higher Education Institutions to overcome the problem of Students' Suicides on University Campuses”. On 30 April the Andhra Pradesh high court appointed Mustafa and Nalsar faculty member Prof Martin Price to the committee to examine the issue of student suicides on campus.
Nuals Kochi drops behind RMLNLU Lucknow and CNLU Patna but seven oldest national law schools stay top.
Five out of ten Delhi Judicial Service (DJS) exam 2011 toppers collecting their appointment letters at the Delhi high court today are Delhi University (DU) law graduates.
New Andhra CJ: Andhra Pradesh HC gets a new chief justice in Uttarakhand HC justice KJ Sengupta. Sengupta, who practised as a lawyer in the Calcutta high court and became acting chief justice there on 5 October 2012 [New Indian Express]
Paid Rs 61 lakh: Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer emerges as the UK’s highest paying law firm with a base salary of £65,000-£72,500 (Rs 54lakh – Rs 61lakh). It leads Linklaters, Slaughter & May, Allen & Overy, and Clifford Chance in that order [The Lawyer]
SC bars two-finger: The Supreme Court has held that the so-called “two-finger test” on female rape victims violates their right to privacy, and asked the government to provide better medical procedures to confirm sexual assault. Justices BS Chauhan and FMI Kalifulla said that rape survivors are entitled to legal recourse that does not re-traumatise them or violate their physical or mental integrity and dignity [PTI]
Ubuntu-Linux court: Jammu & Kashmir HC organises a “training-cum-awareness” program on the use of the Ubuntu-Linux operating system for judicial officers in the state’s district courts [Greater Kashmir]
Out-of-this-world Nalsar: The Centre for Air and Space Law (CASL) in Nalsar Hyderabad is launching new programs in aviation, space, telecommunications, GIS and remote sensing laws in June 2013 [The Hindu]
Nalsar Hyderabad touts India’s first ever MBA in court management.
Amarchand has emerged as the most aggressive Indian early recruiter hiring 36 fourth-year law students across 10 colleges.
25 Nalsarites accept jobs at six firms.
NLU Jodhpur performed strongly in The Hague and at the Commonwealth moot for 35 MPL points.
Nalsar Hyderabad RCC “confident” it will continue 100% recruitment record.
Four female Nalsar Hyderabad students were filmed outside a pub with the footage later edited by local television media into allegedly defamatory broadcasts. A week on, the girls have launched online protest campaigns against voyeuristic journalism, and garnered mainstream media support.
Newslaundry summarised the events so far and spoke to the bureau chief of ABN Andhra Jyoti – one of the involved channels.
Newslaundry: What was the story you had in mind?
Shivaprasad: Of course, the pub was running after 10 o clock. Everything that happened was against the law.
Newslaundry: How was it against the law?
Shivaprasad: It is wrong for them to drink and stand outside. Why should they stand outside? Nothing personal against the girls, but you shouldn’t stand on the road at midnight dressed like that. Our main concern is for safety of the girls.
Newslaundry: Then where should they stand?
Shivaprasad: They should not stand like that. They should go straight into the cab and go home.
Newslaundry: So, you think it was a highly unsafe situation?
Shivaprasad: When the media reached there, the girls are safer, if the media is not there, then it’s a problem.
Nalsar voyeur action: Nalsar Hyderabad executive council has vowed to set up a committee to take short and long term action against the victimisation of women by voyeuristic media. This follows Friday’s incident where TV channels aired and uploaded distorted news segments of an altercation involving party-going female Nalsar students outside a city pub [Hindu / Firstpost]
Hack to check Katju: Markandey Katju “hungry for cheap popularity, “would cause much more harm to Indian society in his remaining term” if not “checked” says journalist Arvind Pansare’s petition in the Bombay HC challenging the Press Council Act 1978 for not providing a process for removal of the PCI chairman [TOI]
Lawbreaker lawmin? Lawmin Ashwini Kumar does not deny charges of vetting the CBI’s status report on the coal blocks allocation controversy, along with other PMO officials. BJP demands his resignation for misuse of the CBI [IE]
Tackling school suicides: Nalsar organises 21 April meet to discuss student suicides in universities; two-judge bench of the Andhra Pradesh HC orders all state universities to attend [TOI]
Pondering porn: SC’s chief justice bench admits PIL on making watching pornography a non-bailable offence. Senior advocate MN Krishnamani appearing for the petitioner asserts that porn is affecting “peace of mind, health and wellness, happiness and human potential” [TOI]
Nalsar fights media: Nalsar Hyderabad students launch online campaign and vow to sue for slander over local television channels that allegedly forcefully filmed them and edited telecast to show them as drunk and topless outside a city pub where they were celebrating their farewell [Hindu/TOI]
Fashionable arbitration: The Karnataka high court’s arbitration centre – India’s second high court arbitration centre after Delhi – gets launched in Bangalore with arbitration fees ranging from Rs 50,000 and Rs 8 lakhs [New Indian Express]
Canning Katju: Bombay high court admits petition challenging the Press Council Act that does not allow for removal of Press Council of India (PCI) chairman (vis ex-Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju). [Spread_law via Twitter]
Pre-legal aid: Mumbai University Legal Aid Clinic in collaboration with the Maharashtra State Legal Services Authority will now offer pre-litigation mediation and arbitration services to citizens [TOI]
Top billing: GNLU Gandhinagar third-year student Tanya Nayyar wins Pravin Gandhi College of Law’s national legislative drafting competition, for her draft Mobile Towers (Installation and Regulation) Bill (2013), which will now be submitted to the DoT. NLIU Bhopal stands second [HT]
Declining judicial aspirations: Bombay high court chief justice Mohit Shah urges state bar council to train candidates for judgeship. Cites finding only 55 suitable judges in a 2012 advertisement for 159 posts, as compared to 41 judges for 100 posts in 2011, and 100 for 100 in 2010 [HT]
Exclusive: Dismissed NLSIU Bangalore faculty member Sidharth Chauhan is currently in talks to join Nalsar Hyderabad in June for the start of the next academic session.