Karnataka’s assembly has passed a bill, which is yet to be given the nod by the legislative council, which would reserve 50% of NLSIU Bangalore's 80 undergraduate seats (and its 50 LLM seats and 50 masters of public policy seats) for students with a strong connection to Karnataka, reported The Economic Times:
The bill, piloted by higher education minister Basavaraj Rayareddy in the absence of law minister T B Jayachandra, initially reserved 30 percent of the seats for resident students of Karnataka. It also defined domicile as a student whose either parent has resided in Karnataka for at least 10 years before the qualifying examination and the student has to have studied in a recognised educational institute in the state for five years preceding the exam.
State reservations are often perceived as popular with states and local politicians (with the BJP apparently having pushed for this reservation to be increased to 50% from 30% from the earlier draft bill).
However, students and NLSIU alumni may be less happy and could fear that this will dilute the mostly meritocratic entrance through the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT). One anonymous student had told the ET: “Currently, all seats in the law courses are filled based on the national Common Law Admission Test ranking. “If 50 percent of the seats are limited to just the state level ranking, it will change the dynamics of the institution and its quality. It will be difficult to implement this law.”
Would it stand? Maybe not...
JGLS Sonepat deputy director Anand Prakash Mishra commented that the reservation likely wouldn't survive for long. “It will be stayed by the Supreme Court and ultimately be declared unconstitutional as it will be deemed arbitrary and violative of article 14,” he said, adding that “NLSIU has some special arguments” compared to other national law schools in other states with large local reservations.
Mishra said:
1. Role of Bar Council of India in setting it up, giving first Rs 5 crores from the BCI Trust which is of entire country's lawyers and not just that of Karnataka.
2. Supreme Court's involvement in setting up of NLSIU - CJI is its ex-officio Chancellor and not CJ of HC like other NLUs.
3. Few more like Karnataka Government has not funded it fully but funds have also come from other sources.
We have also reached out to the NLSIU student bar association (SBA) and NLSIU vice chancellor Venkata Rao for comment.
Photo by Smuconlaw.
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Hope Mathew and Osho can stand up to the challenge with the help of the last year's President. They are our only hope.
1. Pessimistic: NSLIU is doomed, as are any other NLUs where states enact such rules..
2. Optimistic: As this has been enacted by a Congress government The central BJP government uses this opportunity to enact a law granting NLUs the status of Institutes of National Importance (like IITs and IIMs).
Some students had drafted a petition asking for INI status to happen, but the government will only list to VCs. All the VCs need to get together and lobby Jaitley.
Supreme Court assisted in setting up many NLUs. Even MNLU and even the new Shimla NLU Even the visitor of GNLU is the CJI. GNLU is not fully funded by the State as well. Bar Council giving funds has no legal bearing on domicile reservation etc
I know it's not easy to secure this and its a tough case to crack. But, NLSIU is indeed special. More than Karnataka Govt., Bar Council of India and the BCI Trust are responsible for its creation. No other law school is established by BCI though all law colleges are approved by it. You can't compare and put HPNLU Shimla and NLSIU in same bracket, whether logically or legally! See the comment below yours. The Object and Purpose of NLSIU Act will be defeated if it implements domicile reservation. The Act was passed by the Assembly not to create another university of Karnataka, but 'the establishment of such a national level institution in the State'
Cheers!
STATEMENT OF OBJECTS AND REASONS:I Act 22 of 1986.- One of the functions of the Bar Council of India is promotion of legal education. To carry out that object the Bar Council of India created a charitable trust called the Bar Council of India Trust which in turn registered a Society known as the National Law School of India Society, in Karnataka. The Society framed necessary rules to manage the National Law School of India with powers to confer degrees,
diplomas, etc., and requested the State Government to assist it, by establishing the School as a University by a statue so that it could carry out its objects effectively. The State Government considers it desirable to encourage the establishment of such a national level
institution in the State. Hence the Bill.
(Obtained from L.A. BillNo. 28 of 1986.)
NO AMENDMENT OF THE ACT SHOULD VIOLATE THE STATEMENT OF OBJECT AND REASONS OF THE ACT ITSELF.
Nearly all NLUs were envisaged as "National Level Institutions" but that hasn't prevented the state legislatures from providing reservation to students domiciled in their states (e.g NALSAR, NLIU, GNLU). Can you please explain how NLSIU is so different? As far as I can see the state legislature is competent to pass the amendment and it can easily be argued (and quite convincingly) that limited domicile reservations do not exhume the "national" character of the institution.
1) Next year is an election year in Karnataka. Are the BJP and Cong united?
2) What are NLUs not given Institute of National Importance like IIT, NIT, IIM etc?
But no one will ever dribble like me, not George Best, or even Lionel Messi.
It (dilution) shouldn't happen, but ultimately will.
Dear all,
The Karnataka legislature has passed an amendment the NLSIU Act to reserve at least 50% of seats at the National Law School of India University for residents of Karnataka to all courses of NLSIU. This is a sudden and shocking development. Last month, tens of thousands of students from all over the country appeared for the CLAT Examination and MPP Admissions with the aspirations of being a part of NLSIU and similar such institutions. The extraordinary measure of introducing 50% domicile reservations will surely strike a blow to the countless number of meritorious aspirants who wish to be a part of the university.
The National Law School was founded as a national institution to provide exemplary legal education in our country. With the immense contributions of the legal and academic fraternity of the entire nation, the University has attained the stature that it holds at present. This stature is something which we are extremely proud of. The founding principles of this University have been to make it an institution of primary national importance, which is something we have attained through many years of effort from the faculty, the administration and students – students from diverse backgrounds, from across the country, who come to the University in order to gain a valuable and unique educational experience, and further the cause of legal development in India. One of the most cherished aspects of life at NLSIU has been the immense cultural and regional diversity which we have witnessed over the years. Such diversity has contributed to enhancing our learning experience manifold, and also led to many different parts of the country gaining from having well-trained lawyers and academics. Efforts to dilute that diversity strike at the core of the ethos of our University.
At the time of its inception, the University greatly benefitted from the generosity and cooperation of the State of Karnataka. We are an institution established by a State Act, built on state land. At a time when there was no equivalent or precedent available, the State of Karnataka gave the founders of NLSIU the space, time and resources to establish the University that they conceived of. For this, we will always be indebted to the State and the people of Karnataka. However, it remains to be seen how much of a role the Government of Karnataka has been playing in the University, especially in recent times. We are a largely self-financed institution, functioning with limited external funding and reliant on the income we raise through fees and grants from the UGC and benevolent individuals and bodies.
Many students from Karnataka have themselves studied at the University. They have been Rhodes Scholars and Student Body Presidents, and they have achieved great heights in their lives. Karnataka residents continue to do well at our University year after year. A great many of our graduates have contributed to the state of Karnataka in untold ways and continue to do so, be it as senior advocates, academics, constitutional functionaries, and civil servants who have dedicated their careers to the welfare of the state of Karnataka. All of that was and continues to be done without compromising on our diversity and our national character. This amendment goes against that ethos.
The achievements of NLSIU alumni are varied and several – they have not only excelled within India but have reached the far corners of the globe, and have they contributed immensely in their own ways. The contributions of NLSIU to the nation are unquantifiable, and unique. The new amendment to the NLSIU Act puts this very national character of NLSIU into question. The Act very clearly envisions a national law school. Domicile reservations of at least 50 per cent for a University with only around 80 students in each undergraduate batch and 40-50 students in each PG batch makes this goal extremely difficult. We struggle to find similar cases where half the seats have been reserved for domiciles in any other premier institution. Our University and other similar premier institutions have a larger nation-building role, and such a large quanta of seats being deemed only available to residents of a particular state would be contrary to our founding values, and the duties we fulfill as a National Law University.
Therefore, we believe that opposition to a move to reserve half of all seats at the University for residents of any one state is important. We do not consider this as the end of the road in this matter. We will pursue all available options, including continuing discussions at the State as well as Central level, with our Chancellor the Chief Justice of India, with the Bar Council of India, the Supreme Court and all other authorities concerned.
NLSIU must and will remain an institution whose doors are open to all young minds across the country and this is an assurance we wish to give to everyone.
Sincerely,
Mathew Nevin Thomas and Osho Chhel
President and Vice-President, Student Bar Association
[...]
I also think his analysis here highlights valid points about NLSIU, which is different from most (such as the BCI Trust's involvement).
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