LawSikho was started in 2016. NUJS and iPleaders courses ran into disputes in 2018. LawSikho already existed at the time in a separate entity and had some revenue, but was much smaller in scale.
When iPleaders courses ran into trouble due to arbitrary actions of NUJS, iPleaders founders decided that since their courses have a product market fit, they should try out if they can succeed without any university affiliation. And they chose the LawSikho platform to do so. It was important to differentiate the new courses from the previous courses with NUJS. Also there was some change in shareholding that necessitated the shift.
LawSikho, based on revenues alone, is probably 10x bigger than NUJS. and iPleaders blog of course remains.
The regulations that an IoE is exempted from do not include starting a degree that is not recognised by the UGC but will have to be recognised by other universities under the UGC. Hence Jindal's online LLM is not recognised by any other Indian university for job or PhD.
You mistook all the courses that had been stopped as "distance courses", which they were not. UGC was not giving any specific approval even to distance courses when those had started at NUJS anyway. I agree that once the UGC regulations came into effect, NUJS should have applied for approval for the iPleaders courses. Dillon's and other independent certificate and diploma courses run by NUJS were not distance courses and hence no separate approval was necessary other than EC approval. The EC under KD and Lord Taluk did not have the legal acumen or factual clarity to distinguish such points of fact or law, hence they jumped the gun and cut off valuable revenue sources of the university with their foolhardiness.
Dillon's was a diploma course for which the requisite classes were held on weekend physically. Hence it did not qualify as either online or distant course. The faculty coordinating the course did not wish to get into the ugly spat and mud-fight that had been happening back then, hence did not push the point or become part of the witch-hunt. Why would anyone good do that anyway, since it does not matter personally to them whether the university chooses to cut down its own revenue source and harm its reputation?
So what was Dillon's then? And why did they quietly slink off? How was it different from iPleaders? And if none of these ever mattered/matters, why LawSikho now and iPleaders lost in the wind?
NALSAR had the highest NAAC rating when FM was the VC. Not sure if that score is still valid or the expiry date. NLSIU under VR had appealed against the low NAAC ratings (lower than NALSAR, NLUD) but not sure what happened to that. So yes, it will be interesting to know how these are courses are being run without UGC approval. However, please note that UGC had lowered the NAAC score for distance education (about the time COVID struck).
You need a separate approval from UGC to run distance education courses. It doesn't matter whether they are run directly by the univ or in a partnership. NUJS never had these approvals. Nor did it ever make the necessary applications before UGC.
But NKC will do all that now. Starting with higest NAAC scores for stating BscLLB and Msc Forensic Sciences. Then distance education approvals.
I think JGU was awarded the IoE tag. All IoEs are exempt from a huge lot of UGC regulations. For distance edu this translates into the IoEs being deemed to have achieved the higest NAAC ratings and therefore they only need to inform UGC with details of the distance edu courses. Unless UGC makes a specific objection, approval is deemed to have been given.
Similar rules apply for institutions that have achieved the highest NAAC ratings.
NUJS' course with Dillon's was neither a distance course nor online unlike the iPleaders courses. Hence it did not need any separate approval from the UGC. It was simply closed down because Lord Taluk's minions hated the success of that course and managed to convince the EC to shut down everything en masse. Even the certificate programmes that NUJS used to run by itself were closed down for the same reason. As for NLSIU and NALSAR, according to this list, they aren't approved to run any distance or online course on law either.
Have you even seen the list? Plenty of state universities, central universities and even private universities are there. However, there is no university in that list for any programme of law. Not state, not central, nor private. Which goes to show that the UGC does not recognise bachelor's or master's programme in law to be delivered in distance or online mode. This should also put to rest Jindal's claims that their online LLM will be recognised by other public universities in India. It won't, because UGC doesn't recognise online LLMs.
That has always been the case with two exceptions. NLSIU and NALSAR. The former had received approval from IGNOU when it was the regulator of all distance education courses. Later when the DEB of UGC became the designated regulator, UGC withheld approval when NLSIU applied afresh. These were MBL and two other courses. NLSIU went to Karnataka HC and got temporary relief. Later the HC directed UGC to show more initiative in taking a decision regarding the courses. Whether NLSIU finally got the approvals or was exempted is not known.
NALSAR had started unapproved courses (VCV was in-charge of the courses then). This was exposed in a special inquiry conducted by Andhra HC judges (probably when VS was VC) and reported by Kian. So, NALSAR had to clean up and it completely revamped and got all the approvals. Everything was spot on (in this dept) when FM was the VC. Wouldn't know what's the scene now. Maybe NALSAR did not have to do much after that because univs with certain (high) NAAC ratings were given the benefit of not going through the entire process every time by DEB.
NUJS, GNLU, RGNUL et al never had these approvals. While NUJS-iPleaders-Dillon's et al came out in the open due to student agitations, GNLU and RGNUL quietly discontinued their "private" arrangements.
State NLUs are not on this list. Meaning - that any online and distance learning degrees and diplomas offered by any state NLUs are not recognized by UGC.
When iPleaders courses ran into trouble due to arbitrary actions of NUJS, iPleaders founders decided that since their courses have a product market fit, they should try out if they can succeed without any university affiliation. And they chose the LawSikho platform to do so. It was important to differentiate the new courses from the previous courses with NUJS. Also there was some change in shareholding that necessitated the shift.
LawSikho, based on revenues alone, is probably 10x bigger than NUJS. and iPleaders blog of course remains.
You need a separate approval from UGC to run distance education courses. It doesn't matter whether they are run directly by the univ or in a partnership. NUJS never had these approvals. Nor did it ever make the necessary applications before UGC.
But NKC will do all that now. Starting with higest NAAC scores for stating BscLLB and Msc Forensic Sciences. Then distance education approvals.
#VCwithMidasTouch
Similar rules apply for institutions that have achieved the highest NAAC ratings.
NALSAR had started unapproved courses (VCV was in-charge of the courses then). This was exposed in a special inquiry conducted by Andhra HC judges (probably when VS was VC) and reported by Kian. So, NALSAR had to clean up and it completely revamped and got all the approvals. Everything was spot on (in this dept) when FM was the VC. Wouldn't know what's the scene now. Maybe NALSAR did not have to do much after that because univs with certain (high) NAAC ratings were given the benefit of not going through the entire process every time by DEB.
NUJS, GNLU, RGNUL et al never had these approvals. While NUJS-iPleaders-Dillon's et al came out in the open due to student agitations, GNLU and RGNUL quietly discontinued their "private" arrangements.
https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/news/story/ugc-releases-list-of-80-universities-for-online-courses-apply-by-march-31-2518537-2024-03-23