Law schools

RMLNLU Lucknow has lowered its undergraduate five-year BA LLB course fees to Rs 1.05 lakh per year after having doubled its fees from Rs 74,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh per year in 2013, reported the Times of India.

Students had protested the fee hike, which was apparently the first since the university started last year, so the administration gave in and cut the fees in part. The lion's share of the Rs 1.05 lakh are tuition fees at Rs 60,000, followed by admissions fees of Rs 10,000, room rent for Rs 7,500 and other expenses. Total standard fees at NLSIU Bangalore are Rs 1.76 lakh per year, by comparison.

The sexual harassment case against NUJS Kolkata assistant registrar Siddhartha Guha, who was arrested late last year after a female staff member accused him of sexual harassment and violent threats, has climbed to the apex court over cancellation of his bail.

The woman, represented by advocates Siddharth Dave and Phiroze Edulji appealed to the Supreme Court for Guha's bail to be cancelled, after the trial court granted him bail after 14 days in jail, but Guha had filed a caveat petition in the apex court alerting him to the challenge.

The bench of justices Ranjana Prakash Desai and NV Ramana asked Guha's lawyer and the West Bengal government for arguments after the court vacations on why his bail should not be cancelled. [Times of India]

NLSIU Bangalore has started a "cyber lab", in part funded by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DEITY), and the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, which has 30 computers with "basic cyber forensic tools" to teach government officials to prosecute, police and adjudicate cyber crimes, reported The Hindu]. The report did not specify whether the lab would be accessible to students other than those on the school's new-ish postgraduate diploma in cyber forensics and cyber law, by which it is run.

Madras high court bench justices V Ramasubramanian and VM Velumani directed the Common Law Admissions Test (CLAT) convenors GNLU Gandhinagar to provisionally reserve 14 seats for the new Tamil Nadu National Law School in Srirangam in this year's upcoming exam.

The petitioner and advocate R Rajkumar said that the law school's proposal to become part of CLAT was ignored by the CLAT core committee, which promised an inspection that never happened despite meeting on 21 January.

14 national law schools are currently part of the CLAT. [New Indian Express]

GNLU Gandhinagar, which has placed at least 13 fourth year students this year, refused to divulge figures for its 11 April Day Zero recruitment again.

Nuals Kochi vice chancellor (VC) N Balu has resigned effectively from yesterday, a year after he was appointed the university’s VC

CNLU Patna’s on-campus recruitment activity is at its lowest in four years. The law school’s fourth batch, graduating this year, has zero confirmed jobs.

Nalsar Hyderabad students graduating in 2015 have placed 29 students in confirmed jobs, including two 2015 job offers from international firm Allen & Overy (A&O).

NUJS Kolkata’s 2015 graduating batch has accepted 27 job offers across seven firms with a mix of 16 so-called Day Zero offers made after interviews on campus on April 16 and 11 pre-placement offers (PPOs) made after internships to students.

NLU Delhi’s third batch, that will graduate in 2015 has already placed 10 students with confirmed jobs after its Day Zero of recruitment on 4 April, with four offers subject to internships and three vacation placements with foreign firms.

Traditional NLU Jodhpur recruiters Amarchand Mangaldas, Luthra & Luthra and Trilegal hit campus again on 2 April, in addition to Khaitan & Co, to make 12 job offers to the class graduating in 2015.

NLSIU Bangalore’s 2015-graduating batch, which is currently finishing its fourth year of their five-year degree, has placed 33 students after its first day of on-campus recruitment with a mix of PPOs and Day Zero offers.

NLSIU Bangalore students allegedly vandalised notice boards on campus, within six months of another faculty member’s notice board having been defaced with homophobic writing

Up to 47 students, reportedly from a law school in Mumbai, were arrested in a Lonavla house party for allegedly dancing obscenely and being drunk, with police 'discovering' booze and condoms at the costume party.

They were charged under section 294 of the Indian Penal Code, section 110, 112 and 117 of the Bombay Police Act and section (65) (E) of the Bombay Prohibition Act, according to news reports.

Police officers told papers: "Of the 45 students arrested, 20 were women from the same college. Our team found these students indulging in obscene dance. Most of them were under the influence of alcohol.

"It was a masquerade party and the girls were dressed in a one piece dress with masks."

Produced in Vadgaon Maval court on Thursday they were released after paying Rs 10,000 each in surety with proper bail scheduled for April 16.

Lawyer Sanjay Wandre, who is reportedly representing the students, said: "The students did not indulg in any obscene act. As for the dresses they were wearing, modern clothes are commonly worn by youth from Mumbai and there was nothing objectionable about it." [TOI] [DNA]

12 national law universities and at least 20 other Indian law schools, some practicing lawyers, and some academics in law schools abroad have registered for the Standard Indian Legal Citation (SILC) - a new citation format for India, that has codes for citing unique Indian legal sources.