I'm currently pursuing PhD from a Tier 1 NLU. I have more than 4 year of experience as a Research Fellow. But I belive I'm not suited for academia for different reasons.

1. No results to show: I worked for about 3.5 years on a Research Project. There was no final report or anything of that sort. The project is headed nowhere now, and all the work we did was for nothing.

2. No papers: If you're an upper caste male, not poor and not having health issues, there is no reason you shouldn't have at least 1 paper/year. I have only 2 papers after I finished Masters, in almost 6 years.

3. No callbacks: I have applied to most good tier 4 colleges, colleges that are worse than tier 3 NLUs. No callback from any of them. I don't even apply to NLUs because I know there's no point without a PhD.

4. A worthless job: The position I'm currently in- noone considers that to be a teaching position. I'm not getting any teaching experience here. There is hardly any value addition to the skills as well.

5. PhD going haywire: Sometimes I feel I shouldn't have opted for a PhD from a good NLU. Galgotias or Amity will ensure you get a PhD, and maybe a job after that. The NLUs are very sub optimal in all sense, except that we may get better supervisor.

I absolutely agree. Ten years ago one of my batchmates became an assistant professor without even NET. He did a masters from an NLU and got the job. He said there were barely 10 candidates and he was the only one with a LLM from an NLU (tier 2). Today I have a PHD+JRF from a tier 1 NLU and I still haven't gotten a call back. Could you imagine !!

He went straight to teaching with just an LLM. I went through net,then JRF, then PhD and now I don't have anything to show for and he already has a 8-9 year long career. This is utter BS!!!

NLU PhDs are scam. If you've qualified for JRF then it works anywhere, but if not then the financial burden of going through a PhD will be a torture. Moreover, at the end of the day, which I've time & again pointed out, and it's been down voted, NLUs are state Universities. And apart from the legal fraternity, majority don't care. On the other hand, central Universities are the way to go. They charge less fees, therefore you save enough for conferences and other work. They help secure faculty position in the same or affiliated colleges. Everyone knows them since they're central Universities. Moreover, interdisciplinary work is much easier.

So the standard choice should always be DU, BHU, JNU, IITs, IIMs >> NLUs for PhD.

Central universities do not have decent law faculty other than a few exceptional people. Nor do they 'absorb' PhD candidates into faculty cohort like the way you hinted at. All central university recruitments take place via open advertisements where the PhD candidates will have to compete with external people. There is no particular advantage in interdisciplinary work in most of those universities, because faculty from other departments will barely spend any time with you to guide your work, since you're not their responsibility. There is also no central university other than DU, the law department of which is well known within the country. Even DU is known only because of its age, not recent quality. The fees part is accurate though.

Despite open advertisements, are you naive enough to believe they do not prefer their own students ?? Moreover, I've been part of one of these universities in my masters, and I've seen the interdisciplinary work that happens, especially in tech work. Most Professors are glad to help you out, and obviously they're not your supervisors so they won't be with you 24x7, but will definitely help with doubts. And stop living in your NLU bubble, and travel some more, apart from DU, AMU, JMI & BHU are both well regarded in their respective areas of research. BHU professors set & check judiciary papers for northern states.

Why don't you cite some notable legal research that's emerged from these places in the recent past, interdisciplinary or otherwise? Who checks entrance exam papers is now a benchmark of quality these days? None of the places that you mentioned are at all well regarded for their legal research today.

Cite any research from NLUs including the ones from the Messiah himself, that are worth it ? Can you ? Also, the fact that NLUs have no role in judiciary exams shows how relevant they are. A judiciary or psc paper being set & checked by these institutions shows that they're reliable enough.

It's not a normal entrance exam paper. It's UP, Delhi, UK, HP, MP JUDICIARY papers. Pre & Mains. Objective & subjective papers. Even to the point of sitting in interview boards. It's not your one day cramming corrupt NLU entrance exams that you crack just cause you studied in an English medium school. Moreover, cite any legal research coming out of any law school in India, and you won't find even one that's worth their salt in the international market.

I checked Scopus. There are 2 broad law journals listed on Scopus from India- one is Indian Law Review and the other one is from University of North Bengal. The university of North Bengal's journal mostly had authors from TLCs, with one from JGLS and 1.5 from NLUs, none from tier 1 NLUs. Indian Law Review, on the other hand, had articles from JGLS and top.NLUs.

Exactly. Also, they should first change their names to SLU : State Law Universities. Neither are they central nor of eminence. The actual national universities are DU, JNU, AMU, JMI and BHU. The actual eminence institutions are Jindal. NLUs are just money grabbers. Higher studies are not worth it there.