Anup Logic : let’s shift India’s foremost death penalty and criminal justice advocacy platform from the national capital with the SC to a jungle in the middle of nowhere in Telengana for a college that practically has more non-law courses than law courses, consistently has been degrading in quality and has to admit students through the current CLAT🤡. I understand that he may have gotten bored given the fact he is already tenured and spent most of his academic career in Delhi so is a bit disillusioned and perhaps that is the main motivator of this decision. Regardless one would not expect an individual like Anup to take a decision in completely haste and without thinking it through and he would have opted to teaching an exchange semester elsewhere if he were bored. I’d urge current NLU-D students not to worry too much and treat this like it’s the end of the world because it really is not.

Bro, if with these 5-6 faculty a law school could get 2nd Rank for last 7 yrs then it's great. You law school must try that. And don't say now - fake data etc. NLUD continues to be a class apart. This year 24000 candidates , a highest ever applied to get admission. This is the first choice for last 15 years.

Anon logic: let us be extremely salty and cry about it while throwing shade onto the CLAT exam, while completely ignoring the fact that AILET is far worse in many ways, it's exam patterns are highly irregular and does not follow the own format set by the "greatest NLU ever"

He just ran one centre at NLU D for death penalty. I dont think he contributed to the running of the university. Not an administrator. A good professor, getting money through a center. So yes, NALSAR will get funding but he wont be seen on campus much. Good in subject but sad stopped teaching much.

After three years of continuing losses in the form of faculty departures, there is finally some light at the end of the tunnel. Prof. Anup Surendranath has answered the call for help at his alma mater and is expected to join in March 2025. Prof. Sitharamam Kakarala (who had earlier taught at NLSIU and APU) has also joined NALSAR in October 2024. We request the present Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Srikrishna Deva Rao, to give these two esteemed Professors the space and voice to rebuild the academic culture of the institution. Their presence could also help in attracting good younger candidates, especially alumni from NALSAR, NLU Delhi and APU LLM to join at the Assistant Professor level in the next few years. It may still be difficult to compete with the systematic faculty hiring being done by NLSIU, JGLS and BITS Law, but I sincerely hope that this will help in reversing the tide of attrition which has badly affected our law school over the last 2-3 years.

Few students are really interested in death penalty jurisprudence in terms of making a career, so it’s not a huge loss as far as career-linked academics is concerned. But it does continue the exodus of tier 1 NLU-foreign educated alumni ever since Ranbir Singh left , so a loss in terms of image and reputation, which in turn could deter such people from joining in future and make them look towards NLSIU.

NLUD really needs an NLU alum like VC, like NLSIU.

Response:

Yeah, understandable mate, we can almost feel the frustration fuming from here in the jungle. NLU-D students might justifiably have concerns about declining standards, especially when your comment itself highlights key issues.

1. Location & Its Limitations:

Nothing changes the fact that NALSAR’s location isn’t as conducive to legal education or as strategically significant as Delhi. Moving to the relatively isolated depths of Telangana feels like trading the corridors of power for the wilderness.

2. The CLAT Factor:

Admission through CLAT has proven unreliable. Given recent trends, it’s clear the consortium isn’t funneling the very top talent into NALSAR, impacting its ability to retain prestige.

3. Institutional Challenges:

I respect NALSAR’s achievements but can’t ignore how inter-course politics and brain drain have visibly impacted its quality over time.

4. NALSAR’s Stagnation vs. NLU-D’s Promise:

NALSAR has devolved into a local Telugu institution with Telugu professors, a Telugu Vice Chancellor, and regional affiliations, straying far from its national vision. Meanwhile, NLU-D offers better faculty, superior research opportunities, DJS and UPSC success rates, smaller batch sizes, and strategic long-term growth.

5. Anup’s New Frontier—Justice City & Sharimpet:

Anup has left his post at the Supreme Court to embark on a new “advocacy journey” in the untamed jungles of Telangana. His Death Penalty Centre is now based in Justice City, a sprawling legal oasis where justice roams free (and occasionally gets lost in the thickets). Let’s hope his advocacy doesn’t devolve into jungle trials complete with KKK-style rituals of “justice” under the moonlight. Sharimpet is likely his first big stop—a place where defendants might be “rescued” from execution one kangaroo court session at a time.

6. Ideological Narrowness:

My initial point was aimed at certain NLU-D students clinging to the Anupist worldview—narrow perspectives on law, institutional dynamics, and privilege—akin to tribalistic chants in the dark jungle pathways.

7. Best Wishes:

Best of luck to Anup and his cohorts as they navigate Justice City’s undergrowth and continue his advocacy efforts in Sharimpet. Perhaps they’ll discover some lost precedent in those dense legal vines.

For NLU-D students, this change shouldn’t feel catastrophic. Adaptation will always outweigh transient institutional shifts. NLU-D continues to stand as the better, forward-thinking choice for ambitious law students looking for opportunities, infrastructure, and long-term growth.

There’s a huge role that Anup played in nurturing a lot of scholars in the campus including previous Rhodes Scholars and their profile makes it apparent as well. He also carefully framed a very critically worded set of Campus Rules that has been the cornerstone of guaranteeing student liberties and rights in the face of vc and his stooges who have displayed very little regard for student concerns time and time again. he recognised students as adults and not as kids, something the rest of the people in campus really fail at.

Anup going is the biggest drop in academic standards at NLU Delhi since Aparna’s departure. This WILL leave a void. He is the only faculty member who has genuinely tried to help the RCC through various various means to secure more placements, an avenue NLUD genuinely struggles with.

Anup cared for students and academic culture. Something that except for maybe YP and Danny, does not hold true for any others.