There are only 6 T1 Law colleges properly in India, NLS, NALSAR, NUJS, NLUJ, GNLU and NLUD.

How are they ranked in 2026 ?
There used to be a time NLIU used to above GNLU and NLUJ but that has since fallen and NLIU would be somewhere in T1.5. While NUJS and NALSAR used to be top 3 above NLUD, now NLUD has claimed to be #2 although placements may not be as strong as other T1(s).

As far as I know NUJS, NLS and NALSAR hold the best placements record with GNLU trying to enter that league with over 40 + PPO(s) and over 70 placements by Day Z, which will probably and sadly make it another Corporate factory despite GLASS. NLUJ has always been decent although people have started keeping GNLU over it.

My rankings would be -
NLS
NALSAR/NLUD
NUJS
GNLU/NLUJ (although one can keep them above NUJS if they are willing to sacrifice alumni base and a better peer group for other facilities)

How would you rank them honestly ? And your 2 cents on how much difference does it make being in any of them ?

It does make a difference, but the quantum of the difference largely depends on your goal. Every t1 has some things nailed down perfectly. If your aim is getting a domestic job, all of them are equally placed and you'll get the support, help etc that you need (institutionally through day zero, or otherwise from seniors etc to get yourself a ppo). For vac schemes, all others except gnlu (given that they have the least tc/vs holders, might be largely because it's newer than other t1s) might be equally placed, with ofc nls and nluj probably taking the crown (which once belonged to nujs). For academics (as a pathway to llms, scholarships etc), I would say nls, nlud, nalsar, nluj and then nujs (in that order). This all ofc very subjective

A lot of the university's current difficulties are structural in nature: i.e., they are caused by the fact that he is operating in India, with the constraints on funding and other shit that comes with operating in Indian academia, such as the stupid joke of an admissions test that is called CLAT.

1. Please give valid criticisms of how he is not handling the structural part well enough and what he could do better. For example, I think we can agree that the so-called "CLAXIT" (his attempt to replace CLAT with "NLAT") did not go well. Please explain how to have a better admissions test and how to get out of CLAT properly. Explain also how he as one legal educator can single-handedly cure the besetting problem for the Indian law sector 0- that the regulator, BCI, is also a nonsense.

2. Also please suggest better qualified candidates who could do his job. Remembering, as your type of critic is also the type who has made fun of his publication record, that that hypothetical better person must also be either Oxbridge or YLS/HLS master's + doctorate graduate (because that is what NLSIU deserves, being the best law school of the country), whose publications are in the English-speaking world's prestigious peer reviewed journals such as Law Quarterly Review, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Cambridge Law Journal, Law and Philosophy, Legal Theory, Harvard Law Review and so on, and whose books must be published by OUP, CUP, Hart Publishing, Yale UP and so on.

He's the one who started the structural problems by random expansions to the batch size. That was never necessary. As for other people better qualified for the job, his academic publications don't make him better suited to run the place. There have been VCs who have taken NLSIU to the place where it is today, all having done a better job of administering the place without giving up on student concerns.

Do you only troll because you don't have a real job, and have gone crazy after reading Sushir's CV? Because in your every comment, you bring up the Rhodes scholarship and Paul Craig, neither has got any relevance whatsoever to Sudhir's performance as a VC. Craig didn't teach him how to run an institution. Nor did his BCL curriculum have a paper on that.

Loving it!!! Would have given this comment an upvote merely for the rhetorical quality of the personal attack, if you hadn't tripped yourself up by getting into substance.

1. Ad-hominem (as that's what you started with): Yes, I have gone crazy after reading Sudhir's CV (remember to proofread to avoid obvious spelling mistakes from next time, BTW, a lesson you would have learned a long time ago, had you actually reflected on why you failed Sudhir's Con Law class, so maybe you want to reflect on your lack of a job). Crazy with joy that such a one as he would come back to India, when the entire world was open to him, considering his intellect and qualifications.

2. You say that BCL/Paul Craig doesn't have curriculums on how to run universities? You are correct (sort of). They don't spoonfeed (nor can they) on how to run universities. They show the aspiring university leader by example of how the best universities can be run. And as far as I can see, Sudhir is taking the positive lessons from their example. The massively rigorous assessment model clearly has "Oxford tutorial essay system inspiration" written all over it. That's good enough for me. Oh and that isn't all. He has also taken from the U.S. system, which we can, I think, all acknowledge to be one of the best in the world. His caps on top grade scoring based on the curve system were even ahead of some of the American universities fighting against grade inflation. Even other NLSIU faculty have gone on this site to complain that they want to give more higher grades, but can't because of the system, which earns one hell of a pat on the back from me. My only source of sadness is that he hasn't taken the other big grades strictness system idea from the British and put it into NLSIU: their system of "caps" where if you fail an exam or assessment without some very compelling reason like death in the family or severe illness, you are made to take a retest, but the marks you can achieve are "capped" at the minimum pass mark (i.e., the maximum you are given is the lowest pass grade, as a punishment for basically not taking the studies seriously enough). However, that's just one small blot in an otherwise great picture of academic rigour. If that ain't good enough for you, please set out a fully planned alternative that can withstand hostile scrutiny. Set it out here, now, in the presence of us all, remembering that the criteria of it must allow for NLSIU to maintain its domestic top ranking and climb up internationally, and that academic rigour cannot be compromised on under any circumstances because that's fundamentally what a university is about: academic rigour.

It still isn't working. NLSIU grads under Sudhir haven't proven themselves to be any better than grads from other NLUs in terms of their academic quality. You are fond of Sudhir the academic, that's your prerogative. Sudhir the admin has proven to be horrendous for law school, by his meaningless expansion attempts, his lack of understanding about how important getting a job is to majority students and several others. The faculty themselves keep complaining about him and hardly get any time to research because of their workload, which is certainly not something he learnt from any Western University.

In terms of placements for the batch of 2026:

NUJS > GNLU > NLUJ > NLS > NLUD > NALSAR > NLIU

In terms of placements in foreign law firms:

NLS > NUJS > NLUJ > NALSAR = NLUD > GNLU = NLIU

In terms of all metrics, if I were a student joining law school in 2026:

NLS > NALSAR > NUJS > NLUD > NLUJ > GNLU > NLIU

If placements are my only goal:

NUJS > GNLU = NLUJ > NLS > NALSAR = NLUD > NLIU

NLUs in terms of chillness:

GNLU > NUJS = NALSAR > NLIU > NLUD > NLUJ > NLS

Personal Opinion from an NLS Student: When it comes to a balance of overall aspects such as excellent placements, a healthy peer group, decent academics, extra curricular opportunities like marque international competitions AND student autonomy; there's no college that beats NUJS. Nlsiu just tortures their students with a Trimester System - approx >30 people get an year back from each batch and it's get's extremely toxic. Nalsar well... is in the middle of nowhere and you need to take a bus to get whiff of human civilization, is the only true drawback it has compared to NUJS.

Now all three of them (nls, nalsar, nujs) have excellent faculty and academics and have the best placements in the country. What sets nujs apart is the freedom and autonomy the students get. Their personalities are not subjugated against academic pressure and they actually have a LIFE on campus. I visited NUJS during Trilaterals (sports fest) to find that they have no curfew timings, frequent parties, college activities and a liberal faculty which gives them space to live their own lives in peace. If you're looking for Peace, Prowess and Placements NUJS is the place to go.

Didn't know your VC was conservative on curfew timings etc... he's an Oxford man, isn't he? Should be more liberal on such issues. Students are old enough to make their own decisions. If they fuck up their lives by messing around and taking liberties with sleep etc, not the uni's headache. Impose the academic pressure 100%, and then let the students deal with how they navigate it.

I don't really get why people complain about the trimester system. I understand that it is overwhelming at the beginning but most people, including I, get used to it within a trimester or two. Hell, if you can manage your time well (just doing the readings on time and making some rudimentary notes during/before class) then NLS is fairly chill. Of course, this is coming from a position of privilege as not every first year student is proficient enough at English to deal with the complicated texts which are thrown their way. I would concede that perhaps the trimester system is not manageable for such people but even then the proper solution is not to scrap the trimester system but to instead ensure that proper assistance is available to them (through initiatives like the Writing Centre).

At the risk of inching dangerously close to an ad hominem, I would also like to point out that the people who usually complain about the trimester system are also those who don't do any readings or pay attention in class and study just a day or two before exams. If a person can get a degree at NLS just by doing this, then it is rather unfair to malign the trimester system as being too rigourous. You can't point to the continuous eval system for contributing to rigour either since most people are able to scrape by with at least a B/B+ even if they have submitted crappy AI-written papers.

You, personally, do have a "cockiness issue" and it does show, you are right. But that's not because of your uni. It's because of you. Do you know that there are people who would voluntarily amputate parts of their body to get the opportunities you are getting now? People who would shake you if they heard the kinda shit you are complaining about and contemptuously spit the words "first-world problems, posh boy" in your face if they read this comment of yours? Why don't you just sit the hell down and do your essential + further/recommended/additional/optional reading and just be the very best academic lawyers and practitioners you can be once you graduate? If you really want a social life outside of uni, you can sure as hell get one, while still being on top of your academic load every single day, even (especially) under Sudhir. I can guarantee you this, if you try.

Here is an alternative ranking factoring in infrastructure, faculty quality, placements, opportunities to study abroad on exchange and reservation (fewer reserved seats the better).

1. NLSIU 2. JGLS
3. NLUD

5. NALSAR

6. GNLU

7. NLUJ

8. NLIU

9. RGNUL

10. RMLNLU/Symbiosis Pune/BITS/SNU

Top six imo

NLSIU Bangalore

NALSAR Hyderabad

NLUD Delhi

NUJS kolkata

NLUJ Jodhpur

NLIU Bhopal

Next six

GNLU Gandhinagar

HNLU Raipur

RMLNLU Lucknow

RGNLU Patiala

NLUO Cuttack

MNLU Mumbai

Next Six

NUALS kochi

CNLU patna

MNLU Nagpur

DSNLU Vizag

NLU Assam

HPNLU shimla

Last Six

GNLU Silvassa

NUSRL Ranchi

TNNLU Trichy

DBRANLU Sonipat

MNLU Aurangabad

DNLU Jabalpur

Those left out

NLU Tripura

RPNLU Prayagraj

NLU Meghalaya

NLU Sikkim

Any NLU left??

This incesstant CT obsession with ranks both batch or clat, and how people who have the higher ones pick abc colleges and xyz firms and therefore this hierarchical selection makes the latter the best choice; the notion that anyone who does not follow the same route wasn't competent enough to be giving gyan on LI in the first place... is deeply rooted not just in classism but borderline casteism - clat ranks and accessibility is a much larger off topic discussion.

Sometimes people don't want tags they just wish to have a wholesome college life with the same opportunities, decent academics and placements which colleges like NUJS NLUJ and GNLU amongst many others offer. NLS is not doing better in terms of corp placements and has not been able to break NUJS' record which was evident after bo26' numbers - employability here being a very fair and reasonable metric to judge the "quality of their graduates." Coming to litigation, GLC/CLC and other traditional law colleges have a far better alumni support system to boast off compared to all NLUs combined. I'm not even dealing with NLUD because they are just starting out and don't have comparable stats or placement records to evaluate them with NLS Nalsar NUJS etc. So please come down from your high horse, you're not superior to anyone.

Oh give it a rest, sour grapes. NLS had over 20 years of a monopoly with no real competition as well as being able to grow at a time when the economy was expanding and liberalising.The second oldest NLU-NALSAR-doesn’t have the same kind of alumni base either for such reasons. Regardless of what the fools here debate and mods try to curtail, as things stand today, you’d be plain delusional to pretend that NUJS is better than NLUD. Even if placements are 0, NLUD is the better institute.

Okay. To claim that any place with bad placements can be among the best is to ignore reality, which you seem to be doing. There's nothing that NLUD has done that's worth celebrating. It started with good research initiatives but have completely lost it over the years and it is just another mediocre law school now with only locational advantage to boast of. Sure, it's a better bet than NUJS because of that advantage only.

It's okay. No NLUD batch has had a better placement than any NUJS batch ever, but you keep dreaming otherwise. Not that NUJS is much good, almost all NLUs are plummeting down hard and fast. Academically, only NLSIU is worth going to these days, but their infra and placement scenes are bad too.