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1. Madhava Menon: Opening batsman. An institution builder and great administrator. Set up the inning beautifully.
2. BS Chimni: Middle order. One of India's greatest legal scholars and someone with global standing. Continued Menon's tradition of having solid visitors and excellent people on the governing bodies. Not a hands-on administrator like Menon, but administrative skills are secondary when your opening batsman has got you off to an excellent start.
3. MP Singh: Middle order: Excellent administrator and a very respected scholar. Alum of Columbia University, many years of experience at DU. Hired Shamnad Basheer, Sudhir Krishnaswamy and many young scholars at the rank of Professor. Poached Sudhir (an Assistant Prof at NLSIU) and directly made him a professor, saving him 10 years of service. Same with Shamnad, who was still a PhD student. Many other good faculty hired: Sourav Bhattacharya (NALSAR-Michigan alum), Chinmayi Arun (NALSAR-LSE alum) etc etc. Encouraged tons of credit courses by alumni and guest faculty from law firms and industry. Gave full autonomy to SJA to decide these courses. The NUJS Law Review flourished under MP Singh and became India's top legal journal at the time. In the later years of his tenure, the TMC came to power. Mamata began by appointing her astrologer to the NUJS EC (see report below). MP Singh refused to accept this appointment and rejected all other types of interference from the TMC.
https://www.barandbench.com/news/mamata-banerjee-recommends-astrologist-nujs-executive-committee-nimai-banerjee-ready
Menon was like Gavaskar, Chimni was like Pujara or Dravid, Singh was like Tendulkar or Kohli.
After this, all VCs were appointed under the TMC: Ishwara Bhat, Amit Talukdar, NK Chakraborty and now Nandimath. Don't need to comment further. I will only encourage people to compare the composition of the NUJS governing bodies then and now. 🙏
At an event in ILI, someone called Prof MP Singh the Bodhi Tree of Indian academia, especially public law. It's hard to think of a better metaphor. Few will ever match his kindness & compassion. Today, a giant fell and left Indian academia poorer
https://x.com/shubhankardam/status/2030277605539119558