It seems that things are getting worse at nalsar. Under Fuzzy we still had good faculty and some form of administration. It seems that everything has broken down. The admin remains unavailable for students, Siddharth Chauhan leaving in June, rampant cheatings as an established practise during exams has become the norm of the day.

Anyone care to comment?

I strongly feel a weak and inefficient VC is root cause of all evils in an nlu.

NLUs are VC driven institutes. Nalsar led by Ranvir Singh and recently Faizan Mustafa deserve similar persons. Present VC could be apt to be an office superintendent not leader of India's top law school.

Students should demand change of VC. Nalsar is indeed going down with each passing day. A good VC at NLS making all the difference. The difference and distance between NLS Bangalore and other NLUs including Nalsar is much more now.

Maybe things have gotten worse now because chauhan is leaving. But things were bad even under FMs raj toward the end. Pandemic learning was a disaster, the evaluation pattern was a disaster. There was so much cheating that was almost co-signed by the admin. Even before that - so many nlu alumni professors joined and left. Other universities are not like this. They actually have rigor and good faculty and a responsible administration at nls.

That may be one plausible reason. If SKDR-KVR had listened to him, the demonstration classes for the recruitment of Assistant Professors would have actually happened in front of students, rather than being hurriedly done online during an internship break. If they had actually understood what he has been telling them, they would have made serious efforts to reach out to competent applicants for the higher ranks. If they had actually read his written responses to them, they would have planned properly before launching a new LL.M. programme in Insolvency Law. If they had applied their mind, the allotment of subjects to most of the newly recruited teachers would have actually been based on their expertise and preferences. Lastly, if they had heard him fairly, they would have held regular faculty meetings and curriculum review meetings in a professional manner, instead of treating them as mindless rituals.

I have seen Sid.C up close as a colleague for the last 10 years. He lives and breathes for the institution that he works for. He is leaving because the current Administration has made it very embarrassing for any self-respecting academic to continue here. Some of us have financial and family-related obligations which make it hard for us to leave our present job. If it is any solace, at least he is returning to the place from where he was unjustly removed in 2013. They are building a strong faculty base now and hopefully NLSIU 2.0 will show us how an academic institution can be overhauled with patience, persistence and professionalism. Sudhir K is only an instrument for a much larger transformation when it comes to ensuring teaching standards.

So basically if SidChau gets to run the place, then it would be amazing. However, he is not qualified to do so. Nor interested in getting that qualification quickly, which is why he still doesn't have a PhD even after more than a decade of teaching. Hence he wishes to be proxy admin, which the real admin doesn't like.

asking for a voice and for somewhat democratic even reasoned decision making is not asking to be the proxy administrator. Thats the problem with this mindset. What do you think the VC and the deans are for? do you think these positions are rewards? do you think anyone trying to have a reasoned debate is trying to capture power?

these positions are not about power or about rewards. The VC and the deans are usually just the first among equals. universities are not companies and these people are government servants. the best way for them to make decisions is to consult with and listen to their faculty and their students. They dont have to obey any one- but they should ideally listen.

Chauhan doesnt have a PhD. I dont think thats as much about lack of interest as it is the extreme amounts of administrative work the university has been burdening him with since he joined. Its impossible to imagine a part of the university administration that would not be affected by him leaving.

And hes not some authoritarian. If you talked to him for five minutes youd know he was not a particular fan of the AD/ FM raj either but hes clearly willing to work with people who disagree with him. If hes giving up on the university and leaving- that is a troubling thing everyone should worry about.

Anyone who thinks that the VC is only the first among equals in an NLU hasn't ever read the statute of that NLU. He's far from being one and enjoys power well beyond faculty.

NLUs aren't democratic spaces, never have been. None of the VCs well regarded for their administration has been a democrat, not even Menon, MPS, RS etc.

That old excuse of SidChau not being able to do his PhD because of his admin workload can only work for so long. If everyone around him including his contemporaries in other institutions could manage it, so should he. He volunteers for many of his duties, out of the goodness of his heart and sense of responsibility. That means that he's made a conscious choice of not being in a leadership role. Hence he should refrain from interfering in leadership matters too. He's not an FM fan? He encouraged students to lobby for him!

Its ridiculous to assume that people whove gone to said university wouldnt even have opened the statute once. But no one was making some legal point here, only an ethical one.

Whatever the statute may say- this is how academia has worked since ages. In india and elsewhere. Administrative duties are just an add on responsibility- youre supposed to deal with other academics as colleagues. Senior and Junior and VC and Dean having power and all is indian feudalism at play. Its a government university. Your job is to serve the people. Not to chase status for yourself.

If any VC wants to actually be successful and leave behind a legacy he will learn to delegate tasks, consult with a wide variety of stakeholders, and trust his faculty and invest in them so they in turn invest in the institution. Thats what the good ones, Menon and MPS etc did.

What is "a democrat"? Menon and MPS were incredibly egalitarian persons who hired people who were good scholars without being territorial and encouraged them to do their best work. Thats a far cry from FM, AD etc.

SC- its difficult to say how much he volunteers for with admin work and how much not- but it is clear that he was a substantial part of the administration, many of the universities initiatives would be in serious peril once he leaves. I dont trust the remaining folks to be as fair as he has been with student related activities either.

He might have encouraged students to lobby for what he saw as the lesser of two evils, but I dont think at any point of time hes been an FM fanboy at all. If you spoke to SC once youd know he has some pretty harsh criticisms for AD and FM both on their work as scholars and their behaviour as administrators. Hes one of the few who would raise questions at faculty meetings and such and generally be a loyal opposition looking out for the institution. The institution will suffer without him.

you dont even know what youre saying do you? What is PR team? do you really think- sidharth chauhan, the guy who cant afford basic things because hes been living on a government salary for years, and never has had one allegation of corrupt behaviour- that guy has hired a pr team to write defend him on a nearly defunct website?

or you think people who like him are speaking in his defense. whats wrong with that?

he left his job at nls when academic integrity was on the line. and as someone he does mentor from time to time- hes never given me any advice except to keep my head down and do good work and try and stay out of controversy. hes not some rabble rouser at all. In fact hes actually pulled me back from making more of a fuss and steered me toward conventionally successful paths.

You clearly dont know him at all .

It is the onus of established alumni and present students to see to it that majority of faculties and facilities provided are top notch. Harvard is Harvard because the alumni had such a strong "giving back to the community" mentality that majority of the finances come from the alumni and they're not dependent on government. Unfortunately NLUs are neither rich like Jindal nor are central Universities like IIT, IIMs, DU and JNU; and therefore alumni support b come quintessential for it's well being. Also, VC makes or breaks the institution.

Won’t do to blame alumni when students have chased almost every alumni Prof out of the university since 2013. And when admin is openly hostile to alumni coming back.

You want a good university ? You want your degree to mean something ? You have to hold yourself accountable and be the best versions of yourself. There was a time when sub par faculty were given poor feedback and students even petitioned to get them removed. The situation is almost opposite today- electives offered by sub par faculty get filled up cause easy grades and we’ve come to adopt an insane anti-meritocratic attitude where identity is destiny. We have been coasting on the brand without adding to it.

This is the scene in almost all the NLUs now, including NLUD and NUJS. I speak from personal experience. NLS is faring a little better because of Sudhir's personal fastidious nature about academic rules and standards, but the huge batch size will eat into that soon and his term is also almost over.

A boat that's not only leaky, but also delusion inducing it seems. You aren't better than anyone else, never have been. Your future seems brighter to you only because you have no idea about other's futures. Insofar as mediocrity is concerned, your comment and attitude both prove yourself to be the one wallowing in it.

Faculty attrition at nalsar has been a problem since a long while now- plenty of NLU alumni have joined and left teaching positions including Manav, Ajey, Prashant Reddy, Ashrita, Akshaya, Malavika, Anjaney, Anshuman, Jagteshwar, Aakanksha, Chinmay, and recently even Rahul and Pranav, some of these people were deeply invested in institution building and went on to find teaching positions in other law schools- Many of these people left after the pandemic as well, we do at some point have to ask ourselves why all of these people keep joining and leaving. Is the administration hostile to alumni? not just this one but past ones? Is there a problem with the standard of education or the number of teaching hours thats demanded from alumni? are they seeking academic mentorship that they arent receiving? The only alumni nalsar has held on to - the two that have recently entered the teaching pool- seem to have stayed because they were afraid to go anywhere else even for their masters/ doctoral degrees. Thats institutional inbreeding.

Everyone doesn't have the privilege of going abroad for their degrees. It depends on what a person has done in terms of scholarship and publication and how they teach in class, more than which institution's stamp is there on their certificate because they could afford to spend nine months there. If people outside NALSAR know and recognise those alumni, that means it's not a case in inbreeding.

well, those two definitely did have the privilege of going elsewhere, not even abroad- could they have gone to NLS? could they have tried to get exposure to any other academic environment? or did they stay on at nalsar because they had a benefactor and they wanted to get the easy way out? did they benefit from said benefactor? I think allegations about impropriety in hiring at least should be taken seriously.

You cant keep redefining words and adding qualifications because you dont like the definition. If a person gets their bachelors, masters, and doctorate all at the same institution and then gets a job at the same intitution- that is by definition academic inbreeding. We dont know how people outside nalsar would recognise these people because theyve been too afraid to step outside nalsar in their academic careers.

You can check about their research, publications and other academic credentials including collaborative work with outsiders. These are what define an academic's merit. If those involve other respected people and institutions, then that shows what the outsiders think of them. You don't have to keep getting jobs elsewhere to prove your worth. As for who's privileged enough to go elsewhere, that's something only they would know. You can't be possibly knowing them well enough of their personal situation.

Other collaborators, that have already been allied with their benefactor at the university? what have they done to build something by themselves?

You do absolutely prove your merit and credibility by entering the marketplace and competing and winning in places where there are no benefactors or connections giving you a leg up. Thats the reason academic inbreeding is frowned upon- because its antimeritocratic.

So according to you- all someone has to do to claim lack of privilege is to say they dont have privilege? and no one can question them? all the Brahmins in the country would tell you they dont have privilege- do you believe them? is this some sort of religion for you? these individuals are known well enough for many of us. we've known them since they set foot in nalsar- they dont lack in any kind of privilege.

Theres that identity is destiny crap again. Do you know who the post is referring to? do you honestly think they dont have privilege enough to go elsewhere ? why abroad ? why not go to other universities in India? has JNU fallen? have any of the other NLUs or IITs or TISSs?

Privilege actually works the other way here- you only stick on at one institution for your entire academic career if you are privileged enough to be in the good graces of those with power. everyone else has to go prove themselves in other institutions, but not the favorites.

The first part of what you say is fine. But the pattern emerging is that there is a lot of gatekeeping by senior faculty. The amount of pandering they require is unrealistic. If you want young faculty with other options and experiences that would help the students to commit to being in such a remote place, you have to think about their needs. Instead, the institution is stuck with people who are comfortable living under the senior faculty's thumb. They may be good but they are a limited pool that can't introduce new ideas without risking being pushed out.

Yes I mean its the same thing from the other end right- the benefactor only keeps them around cause theyll jump when she tells them to and dance to her tunes and never brooke any disagreement or ask for any accountability from the person who is giving them their careers.

Honestly, why do we think they're good? Have they done anything past graduating from llb cohort that would put them in the top doctoral level legal scholars in the country? no? do they branch out and say terribly new and exciting things in their scholarship? also no? I dont bear these guys any ill will- but its clear theyve taken the easy route instead of actually trying to learn new things and pushing themselves.

No one knows their story. I can think of great professors who stayed with a single institution because of family circumstances, or attachment to the institution or city, or health, or a combination of all these things. We should not be making assumptions about individuals. The question is not whether they are good or not, but why the institution does not seek out and make space for other who would renew it with new ideas, networks and energy. Targeting them is unfair and is a waste of energy that is better spent pushing the institution to do more.

except we do. We have known them for 13 years now since they arrived at law school. Other people dont have an attachment to family or institution or city or health issues? almost every alumnus who has gone into academia has tried to expand their horizons by going to other universities for one or the other degree. Its ridiculous to claim special circumstances without asserting them properly or even providing any details let alone proof of the same.

If this was a discussion about bollywood nepo kids- youd be singing a different tune. The point is that academic appointments should not be handed out to favored sons and daughters- they should be obtained through a meritocratic process. That is what is good for the university. And in this respect- no VC at nalsar, not RS, not VS, not FM nor his surrogate, and not the current guy- no body has actually done the thing with integrity. You know why almost every other alumnus who has joined has left? its because they dont have the patronage/ support of the powers that be unlike the two we're talking about. and without that you cannot really survive an institution.

You dont get to jump to medication without diagnosis.

That's literally what I said when I pointed out that there is gatekeeping by senior faculty. There is a difference between saying the institution shuts a lot of great people out and saying the institution only lets mediocre people stay. Shitting on the people who are actually putting effort into the institution might be your style but it isn't mine.

Nalsar isn't exactly a dream institution to join. Maybe you personally would engage in UPSC level competition to burn your youth in the outskirts of Hyderabad but most people have to be persuaded that it is worth the sacrifice. This 'lack of integrity' that you accuse RS and FM of was them using personal charisma and persuasion to get people to come and sit in the middle of nowhere and accept daily abuse from entitled students for their pains. Without their efforts, the faculty would consist of one or two power hungry but decent scholars and whichever locals were willing to tolerate being bullied by them in a remote village without access to any other community. VCs don't get paid more or get a better title for building a faculty that is a good mix of outsiders to bring energy and ideas, and people who will stay and provide stability and institutional memory. But they did it.

And um, unless these people are blood relations of the VC or senior faculty, your nepo analogy is farfetched. Not to mention that academia is mostly thankless service work and hardly comparable to the wealth and fame Bollywood brings.

If your goal is to get Nalsar to be willing to welcome outsiders and change, then your argument undermines it. When long term, old timers feel threatened, they will never let outsiders in. The only way it will happen is if instead of dumb turf wars, people understand that both kinds of faculty are necessary for the institution.

There's speculation among some that a particular person is involved in orchestrating these declines.

Allegedly, that person is impeding the disciplinary committee and subtly promoting the relaxation of academic rules, possibly with the aim of prompting the current VC to resign and paving the way for their own appointment to the position.

Can someone confirm these rumours?

Relax guys. It is not an impending disaster if one faculty member is leaving, even if he is widely considered to be among the best teachers in India for Constitutional Law and Legal Philosophy. He was publicly lobbying for FM to get a third term (which did not happen) and has an old connection with the present NLSIU VC. Let us look at the bright side. SKDR has gone for fresh faculty recruitments since taking over and has added more than 20 teachers in the last one year alone. Many of them are new to the profession and will eventually grow into decent academics. There are also some experienced hands who have come from other law schools. Let us work together to rebuild the institution, instead of ringing alarm bells every month.

Firstly I am not sure if these are trolls who daily come up with headlines like "NLS going to the dogs".."NALSAR in shambles".. seems very click baity and trollish to me...if the threads on this site were to be believed NLS and NALSAR would have gone ground deep in their stature..

Either ways, I will indulge. I will tell you an important thing to stop this fear mongering. "It is the STUDENTS that make a university." NLS and NALSAR are what they are because the top 200 CLAT people go there. These are the words of none other than my VC Faizan sir. He had very categorically stated that it is the students that make a university rather than the faculty. Give me the top 50 students of the country and that institute will anyways excel provided of course that it has some semblance of infra and decent (if not stellar) faculty.

Isn't Messiah criticized daily on this site?? Didn't NALSAR have a period of having a very incompetent VC (read Veer Singh) in the past?? And through all this turmoil both the institutes have retained their status and will continue to do so.

The blind don't educate the blind. Fuzzy was a good politician and told you whatever bullshit strokes your egos and made you putty in his hands - its like Americans who come here and say they love India to make Indians happy. CLAT isn't some magic formula to weed out the brilliant and motivated. It is a random quant/ qual/ GK test because there needs to be some process to justify admissions. It doesn't make you special and brilliant. You (we) are all almost randomly chosen from many people with similar aptitudes.

The fact is that every university in the world has good and bad faculty. As long as the proportion leans towards the better, as it has for Nalsar, the education stays decent. You can compare Sudhir to Veer Singh all you like. The fact is that you can learn a hell of a lot from one and not so much from the other. What it does prove is that students will come and complain and whine when they don't feel good, which is often. Yes, some professors don't have great people skills but they don't in Y/H/S either. Despite the complain, students do get educated, whether directly in class or by friends who got educated in class.

Here's the takeaway. The whining tells you nothing - it has existed as long as Nalsar has existed. Find people who have learned to make the most of Nalsar and learn how to do it from them. You still have very decent faculty to work with, great infrastructure, a very good reputation and a good alumni network. Your classmates have this too and you can make the most of this together.

So your argument is CLAT- an exam in which the questions are often wrong and taken at the age of 17 after all the help one can get from coaching centres- is so good at picking out brilliant legal minds that they dont actually need good faculty to teach them the law? are you high?

I was in college in Veer Singh era- standard slipped considerably, it became a dispiriting place to be, and the only reason it retained status is because he paid india today for the rankings and because other institutions were in their first years. VS by the way- was thrown out because students hated the state of affairs and the corruption so much sent petitions to the chancellor and got a probe that looked into his corruption. It wasnt students who rested on "status" who made the university a tiny smidge better- it was students who actually worked, and risked bad grades and risked not being hired and took time out of their lives to do so.

NLS was heading in a downward spiral- again it was students who protested and wrote petitions to get a new VC who they may not like all the time- but NO ONE can allege that he has not improved the university by bringing in new faculty or by refusing to participate in grade inflation/ corruption. that is what will save that institution.

Theres no- fixed mentality at work here- "i was best at clat so ill continue to be best" doesnt work. You have to work hard to be a good lawyer and to be a credit to your institution, and when you join law school- thats the beginning and not the end of your journey, you have to leave the place better, not worse, than you found it.

One of our MBA faculties told us in class that he is not paying any benefits out of the faculty incentive schemes. Apparently our faculties are paid for getting published in Scopus journals and most of the publications(from nalsar) are done by our department. even then they are denied their basic rights.

1. TLC brand VCs built NLUs and the concept. Moreover, look at NLS being headed by a alumni, completely ruined the 5 year course, more emphasis on the 3 years and massacred the doctoral scholars and ruining the co-curricular activities.

2. Majority of people with a 5 year LLB from top 5 don't join academia, it's usually the LLM and PhD students from the same university who are interested, yet are treated as 3rd class citizens.

3. Students who work hard will continue to do so despite the faculty level. It's the non compliant students that need to be addressed. Also the free grades/grade inflation needs to be stopped.

Students HAVE protested. Relentlessly. In the beginning of his term. What did Sudhir do? Ignore them. With the Trilateral Student Body meet he made it very clear that he does not care. And the Campus culture? During the NLS alumni meet some alums were going to visit the field- and the field was locked up! And there was a student in the field who was stuck! If the admin is so eager on locking down on campus why dont they just permanently shutter it down?

Im an NLS student and I agree on 1 and 2- NLS has completely ruined the 5 yr course. I've had profs who can't speak in english, while all the experienced profs are assigned to 3yr LLB. I don't think NALSAR will have the kind of downfall that NLS is having right now- there are disturbing leves of crowds everywhere on campus, most of the infra has crumbled away, the campus is dusty and smells like shit because even top institutes can't figure out the concept of "sewage." That being said, I think the LLBs have a bright future if Sudhir continues- they get great amounts of admin support. Let's just hope at least some course is happy being at NLS.

TBH, it's high time that students protested against the appointment of this VC. The main problem isn't the faculty that has left but even the faculty that has joined recently. SKDR (also infamous for the protest against him in NLUO for his "alleged corruption") has brought in several teachers from NLU Odisha, most of which are painfully incompetent. These teachers have solely and on the basis of their connections secured a spot through what was going to be a "transparent" faculty recruitment process. And most of these teachers cant teach. And while Siddharth Sir might have left due to internal power struggles, it is no joke that better teachers are actually necessary.

It is high time that the VC resigns and/or the students protest against him. Bring someone of the statute of Faizan Mustafa or any alum of NALSAR as VC to actually build up the faculty recruitment. TBH, we as NALSAR students should wake up and actually organise a protest against the decline of the faculty that is teaching us. Students run any university and tbh that is even the spirit of NALSAR

Who are these precious peaches that want to move to Shamirpet? You want full time experienced teachers with foreign degrees but not anyone who has taught at a lower ranked school! Thoda aukaat ka bhi socho. Ideally brilliant locals might have worked, which was Ranbir Singh's strategy but the senior faculty have their own politics and and insecurities so they won't allow it. This is what is left and actually it is much better than you think. Get your head out of your ass and help these new people understand what you need. Make them feel welcome so that they want to help you.

This is true. Since Messiah has ruined NLS, this would be the best time for NALSAR to overtake NLS if it can get its own house in order. The biggest beneficiary of all this will be NLUD if it continues without deteriorating and since Bajpai seems a more competent VC than SKDR. NUJS and GNLU can also gain if NALSAR sinks lower. That's a real tragedy here.

NLUD is already deteriorating with its own faculty exodus, inability to replace those who left with people of comparable calibre, increasing space crunch, and internal faculty politics. The VC has got his own agenda. There are hardly any industry relevant course that are offered by resident faculty, though the guest lectures are still very cool, chiefly owing to the location.