NLIU students talk about their journey, some pitfalls and advice for other NLUs who would benefit from an SBA
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Friday, 30 October 2020 18:57Law schoolsAn estimated 4 minute read...
We The Students: NLIU gets first constitutional representative democracy
NLIU Bhopal has completed its very first Student Bar Association (SBA) elections - in the midst of a pandemic no less - appointing its first office bearers after finalising the long-fought-for student body’s constitution for several years.
The elections were held from 24 to 27 October 2020 with a 60% turnout amongst around 500 undergraduate students.
According to a statement by the students:
The first NLIU-SBA was formed after a two-and-a-half-year long demand for a representative student body. The Drafting Committee of the NLIU-SBA Constitution needs to be applauded for their endless efforts to ensure that the University got its SBA. The SBA is a truly democratic body and as the Constitution of the SBA declares, derives all its powers from the student community of NLIU. The NLIU-SBA strives to develop harmonious relationships amongst the students, faculty and administration of the University, ensuring that the entire NLIU Community benefits from the same.
Anoushka Ishwar was a member of the five-member election commission (also consisting of Rayana Mukherji, Ritwik P Srivastava, Sahil Sonkusale and Utsav Garg). She said: “We might be one of the few student bodies that pulled off their first election in a pandemic in online means. Not only the administration but also our lovely student body that showed up on time, and voted in numbers for their first election for the first time.”
The vote resulted in the elections of Nipunj Niket as president, Rakshit Ranjan as vice-president and Kartikey Bansal as secretary, in addition to two batch representatives from each year voted for by their respective batches.
Bansal explained that it was a “very tough competition”: “A lot of candidates were in the fray, not just senior-most but also the junior most batches had people vying for the position of even president.
“Each presented a very strong manifesto and the conduct of the candidates was really professional: none tried to outdo or personally attack the other, and it was conducted in a mutually respectful manner.”
He also expressed the students’ appreciation for NLIU’s VC, Prof V Vijayakumar, who had joined the university in 2018 and had supported the students in their SBA elections.
However, getting here has been a long, long road for NLIU students for more than one generation.
Multi-year project
“The formal demand [for an SBA] was held three years ago,” said Bansal, “but it has been in the works for seven to eight years.”
Ishwar explained that the the process had kicked off in 2017, after a month-long protest by students.
However, since then the process ended up taking two more years.
“Around 2018-19, the final draft [constitution] was put to the VC, faculty and executive council of NLIU,” said Ishwar. “It took around a year for their amendments to be included, and we had the final approved SBA for NLIU around the start of 2020.”
Several of the changes suggested by the administration and eventually incorporated into the constitution had been useful, she noted. “A few important concerns that the administration had, was - maybe legitimately so - that the campaigning might take a political colour, especially in a college situation.”
While the earlier draft constitution had suggested for a month-long campaigning period, this has now been cut short to four days. Also, the powers of election commissioners were beefed up a little.
Overall though, the administration had agreed about most of the powers effectively delegated to students, though “maybe a few financial powers were taken down a notch”, she added.
Advice to others: Keep at it
The national law universities (NLUs) that have an SBA are generally the better for it, most students, many academics and even some VCs would agree.
Many are still without, of course, even amongst the older NLUs: GNLU Gandhinagar has never had an SBA and NLU Jodhpur still doesn’t (although VC Prof Poonam Saxena had said in 2019 that an SBA would come soon).
“I would say to other NLUs, just keep at,” noted Bansal when asked for potential advice about how other student bodies could bloom. “Every law college entirely needs [an SBA], irrespective of the uphill task they might face.”
He noted that a constitution was important for law students in particular, to ensure student voices were heard by an administration and so that decisions were not taken in a “non-consultative manner”.
“It is very important for students to have a channelled voice, otherwise a few scattered students sending in their petitions might be keeping their interests in mind and not the colleges [general student body],” Bansal said. An SBA, by contrast, provided an “effective channel of communication and [of students’] concerns”.
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Don't know why LI censored my comment. The word LI deleted begins with "s" and is commonly associated with the actor Alok Nath. It is not at all a swear word. In fact, Poonam Saxena will be proud if we call her students that.
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There's a big reason why NLSIU is #1. Its student and alumni bodies are strong and 100% united. You don't see 60% turnout for anything, always 100% turnout with 100% unity. Whether it's good causes like fighting for a VC and opposing domicile quota, or bad causes like lobbying against other NLUs or maintaining silence on Lawrence Liang, everyone stands together.
Kian this is an unnecessary personal attack on the NLS community for standing in favour of LL. People might have taken individual stances but their being a united stand in favour of him by the SBA and Alumni Bodies is completely false and rather misleading. Please moderate such comments.
NLIU is the third-oldest NLU after NLSIU and NALSAR, but in terms of ranking and perception it is behind NLSIU, NALSAR, NUJS, NLUD, NLUJ and GNLU (soon MNLU as well). That is what happens when students let a corrupt and tyrannical admin run riot for years and years instead of fighting it. Sorry NLIU, but your SBA is too little too late.
How can a law school be irrelevant lmao. And NLUD is far superior than most. Nirf put it as the no.2 law school after NLS, (over nalsar) Most would say they're pretty evenly matched. Get your facts straight. It's only dudes like you who failed to make it to an nlu due to your shitty attitude.
Get your facts right. This is the reason you will be a horrible lawyer. NLIU is the 2nd oldest, started in 1998 with NALSAR, but the act was passed in 1997 before Nalsar.
And judging by your knowledge of facts, rest of your comment does not even warrant a response. Someday if you are lucky enough to make it to a big law firm or work against one, you will see the NLIU alumni and their worth. Sitting in college or a bad place you would not know much about NLIU it's alumni or achievement. But we all 5 older NLUs have a mutual respect and admiration for each other at our work place. NLIU Alumni do just as well as Nls, Nalsar, NUJS or NLUJ students. And tough situations lead to a good outcome. I think you should bother about yourself more than the student council of another college. Try to be in the same space as them someday.
It's still odd when all traditional top 5 nlus are ranked high in nirf but NLIU is at 17th. Nirf ranking don't matter in the real world, but college are judged on the same parameters. NLIU is missing some shit that the other top 5s have. Which is why NLIU falters on the same assessment parameters where all the other top 5 nlus pull ahead. Just shows that something's not quite right there. I thank my lucky stars I got upgraded past nliu. At this point NLIU is a pseudo top 5 nlu at best.
Siddharth NLUJ is both right and wrong. He is right for saying that NLIU is a below part law school and NLUJ is better. He is wrong for saying that NIRF does not matter. It does. In the case of NLIU it got downgraded due to numerous scams.
@Siddharth NLUJ: For someone who does not study at NLIU, or have any connection with the university, you seem remarkably interested in what it does or doesn't.
Isn't NLIU the same college which handed out hundreds of fake degrees and where students who failed were passed? Why does this college still have NLU status?
NEWS FLASH: Bimal Patel has successfully lobbied to get his present university (Raksha Shakti University) upgraded to the status of an Institution of National Importance. Why did he not do so for GNLU??
Looks like a fluff piece. NALSAR and other places have had that gender ratio even earlier. NLSIU becoming diverse is a joke. It does not even properly implement all the reservation categories that it is supposed to under law, including OBC, EWS etc. The administration has been hauled up before the Minorities Commission on this matter, but they somehow managed to use their alumni pull and wiggle out of it.
Excuse me, but how is Law School obligated to implement either EWS or OBC under law? Neither is a legal mandate, only an enabling provision. Only Central Universities are mandated to implement OBC reservations (since Law School is under a state statute, it has no such obligation). Mutatis mutandis for EWS, in fact, there is no statutory obligation to implement EWS even at the central level, it is only a matter of policy that it is being rolled out.
Law School does not even obey the state reservation rules, basically behaving like an opportunist that does authority-shopping as and when it suits them.
I have reported comment 6 to the moderator for appropriate action. I strongly condemn attacking Prof Sudhir like this for no reason First of all he has no relation to this article. Second, he remains the top NLU VC in India by far and the most academically qualified NLU VC in history along with Prof Mohan Gopal of NLSIU (who had a doctorate from Harvard). Even the most eminent VCs in India like Profs Menon (NLSIU and NUJS), Mitra (NLSIU and NLUJ), MP Singh (NUJS), Chimni (NUJS) and VS Mani (GNLU) all had Indian PhDs. He has also taken revolutionary steps like:
- revamping research - GE PhD scholarship - hiring the maximum alumni faculty among all NLUs on one sweep - fighting dilution of standard by way of domicile quota - getting Karnataka HC to recognise that NLSIU is the only NLU and all others are state law schools. - applying for Institution of National Importance status.
It is shameful to attack him and doubly shameful in the event [...]. In case the comment was about NLAT, let me tell you that the intentions were very genuine but some people hijacked it for vested interests, backed by the TLC mafia. In fact, CLAT has proven to be even more defective, but the TLC mafia has silenced all opposition.
Yeah, yeah, we all know the broken old record from your side. Whatever good Sudhir does, it is his sole credit, whatever bad he does, it's someone else's fault. It's a wonder you aren't already hired as his official publicist. And all those VCs with 'Indian PhD' are responsible for all the good reputation that the NLUs have today. All that Sudhir has managed with his foreign degrees is to drag the NLS name through controversy and litigation so far.
What research has been 'revamped' at NLSIU that wasn't already taking place before Sudhir took charge? Have they already discovered a working vaccine for COVID 19? Getting alumni faculty can't be the be all and end all goal, that's only something entitled ignoramuses like to think. The aim is to get good faculty. Most of the renowned law faculty across the country today are still not from NLUs themselves. I see you are also making up facts like NLSIU applying for INI status. Care to reveal on which date and before which authority such application has been filed? Some of the other things that Sudhir did during his Caligula-esque reign that you left out -
Extorting students for convo fees without holding convo.
Forcing his own students to sit for online exams in the middle of lockdown without providing necessary infra.
Throwing tantrums before the consortium, causing breach of trust, inconveniencing thousands of students with the disaster that NLAT was and then having to eat crow before the court, all the while wasting student fees for litigation expenses.
Attracting needless negative publicity and infamy for NLS throughout the country.
Putting multiple barriers before existing students to approach admin and/or alumni that did not use to be there.
Publicly admitting that he has got no plan for handling the new batch and its delayed start and still having to accept that delay now.
Not knowing the bye-laws of his own university and trying to sneak past decisions without consulting the academic council. Also misrepresenting before the executive council about losing one whole batch fees unless NLAT happened.
Getting even his own alumni supporters like GShanks to oppose his Hitleresque actions formally in court.
One can go on, but none of these is actually the mark of a good administrator regardless of one's educational qualifications. Apart from this, people already knew about his lack of empathy for students and the current students and staff are facing the brunt of it even now.
NLIU hardly has any student getting selected at Oxford/Cambridge/Harvard for LLM. No foreign placement. Lesser Tier 1 placements than NLUJ, NUJS or GNLU. No prestigious scholarship. On what ground do you think it is at par with other NLUs (From NLISIU to GNLU)?
NLIU students have been consistently going to Oxford for BCL for quite a while now. I agree that there are very few NLIU students who have been selected at Cambridge and none that I can recall. While selection at Harvard is not a lot, there are at least 10 NLIU students with a Harvard LLM that I can recall.
Will concede though that there is no foreign placement.
Less Tier 1 placement? 24 PPOs from Tier 1 firms for the Batch of 2021 as of February 2020. Keep in mind that only 60 odd people opted for placement from the batch and Day 0 was over a month away, in April 2020.
No prestigious scholarship? 4 Chevening scholars this year from NLIU and JN Tata Scholarship last year. NLIU has been producing Chevening scholars from the very first batch back in 2003.
Comment 13.1 sounds like fake news. How can a college produce 4 Chevening scholars in one year, that too NLIU? Give us names and proof please. 24 PPOs also sounds inflated. Why no press statement to Bar & Bench/LI? Please also name your Harvard alumni.
Hats off to you for giving proof, because many NLU students make empty boasts on LI without giving proof. In fact, NLIU got punished in NIRF only because they give honest info and do not do PR. Sadly, some cheater NLUs outranked NLIU though lies and deceit.
There is no proof that those 4 names actually received chevening scholarship. Writing their names isnt evidence. I hope they teach you evidence act at NLIU
There's no evidence of this being any business at all of yours either. But you still keep commenting, much to everyone else's exasperation. Actually, there's no evidence at all of you having been clever/lucky enough to even make it to any NLU ever. Finally, there's certainly no evidence of you having any locus to demand evidence from anyone else. I hope they taught you how to take a hint at your school.
I am not from NLIU and do not know whether the claims made are accurate or not. But nobody owes any proof of anything to your anonymous claim. It is not as if that all the claims made by people from various NLUs are being backed up by stats either. If you want to know more, do the research yourself.
GNLU's jumbo batch of 2020 had 19 PPOs (all tier 1) as Bar & Bench reports. NLIU's much smaller batch of 2020 had 14 PPOs (all tier 1). Please let me know which one is better, given that NLIU's 2020 batch had 118 students while GNLU has close to 200. That's 40% more students but only 25% more PPOs.
First of all, dont just count PPo but include all day zero placements as well. GnLU batch size is 180 and not 200. Ask from anyone not more than 100 students registered for placements. Now make your analysis and find out which one is better.
There's no real hierarchy, because in the real world, nobody cares. It's all make believe for places like this where jobless people want to engage in frat house spats and d**k-measuring.
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And NLUD is far superior than most.
Nirf put it as the no.2 law school after NLS, (over nalsar) Most would say they're pretty evenly matched. Get your facts straight.
It's only dudes like you who failed to make it to an nlu due to your shitty attitude.
And judging by your knowledge of facts, rest of your comment does not even warrant a response. Someday if you are lucky enough to make it to a big law firm or work against one, you will see the NLIU alumni and their worth. Sitting in college or a bad place you would not know much about NLIU it's alumni or achievement. But we all 5 older NLUs have a mutual respect and admiration for each other at our work place. NLIU Alumni do just as well as Nls, Nalsar, NUJS or NLUJ students. And tough situations lead to a good outcome. I think you should bother about yourself more than the student council of another college. Try to be in the same space as them someday.
Anyway, good for NLIU folks. I hope this marks as a beginning of a new era in all NLUs.
www.legallyindia.com/lawschools/after-15-fake-nliu-llb-degrees-emerge-in-judicial-probe-law-school-goes-on-rampage-to-find-out-fakes-in-all-8000-since-2003-20180323-9188
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bhopal/failed-47-times-but-got-nliu-degree/articleshow/67608364.cms
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bhopal/fake-degree-row-200-nliu-students-under-lens/articleshow/66399647.cms
www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/nliu-to-check-8-000-degrees-of-past-13-years-for-irregularities/story-IMlFrMDTBPYbtMyTsjEaQK.html
www.timesnownews.com/education/article/gujarat-government-hails-passage-of-rashtriya-raksha-university-bill-in-ls/656037
www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/how-bengaluru-law-varsities-are-becoming-more-diverse/article32988436.ece
- revamping research
- GE PhD scholarship
- hiring the maximum alumni faculty among all NLUs on one sweep
- fighting dilution of standard by way of domicile quota
- getting Karnataka HC to recognise that NLSIU is the only NLU and all others are state law schools.
- applying for Institution of National Importance status.
It is shameful to attack him and doubly shameful in the event [...]. In case the comment was about NLAT, let me tell you that the intentions were very genuine but some people hijacked it for vested interests, backed by the TLC mafia. In fact, CLAT has proven to be even more defective, but the TLC mafia has silenced all opposition.
Extorting students for convo fees without holding convo.
Forcing his own students to sit for online exams in the middle of lockdown without providing necessary infra.
Throwing tantrums before the consortium, causing breach of trust, inconveniencing thousands of students with the disaster that NLAT was and then having to eat crow before the court, all the while wasting student fees for litigation expenses.
Attracting needless negative publicity and infamy for NLS throughout the country.
Putting multiple barriers before existing students to approach admin and/or alumni that did not use to be there.
Publicly admitting that he has got no plan for handling the new batch and its delayed start and still having to accept that delay now.
Not knowing the bye-laws of his own university and trying to sneak past decisions without consulting the academic council. Also misrepresenting before the executive council about losing one whole batch fees unless NLAT happened.
Getting even his own alumni supporters like GShanks to oppose his Hitleresque actions formally in court.
One can go on, but none of these is actually the mark of a good administrator regardless of one's educational qualifications. Apart from this, people already knew about his lack of empathy for students and the current students and staff are facing the brunt of it even now.
Will concede though that there is no foreign placement.
Less Tier 1 placement? 24 PPOs from Tier 1 firms for the Batch of 2021 as of February 2020. Keep in mind that only 60 odd people opted for placement from the batch and Day 0 was over a month away, in April 2020.
No prestigious scholarship? 4 Chevening scholars this year from NLIU and JN Tata Scholarship last year. NLIU has been producing Chevening scholars from the very first batch back in 2003.
GnLu has 3 students been offered LLM seats at cambridge. NLUJ has 2. Both of them have foreign placements also, although, very few at GNLU.
GNLU and NLUJ tier 1 stats are more than NLIU for 2020 batch, 2019 batch and 2018 batch.
GNLU has 2 rhodes scholars and a few chevening scholars also. A couple of other scholarships too. Not to mention that NLUJ is also at par.
Now, can you say that NLIU is better than NLUJ or GNLU?
Chevening Scholars 2020-21:
Aditi Shrivastava (NLIU'16)
Anamika A (NLIU'13)
Yash Vijay (NLIU'14)
Shivani Vij (NLIU'17)
Harvard LLM:
Adhitya Srinivasan (NLIU'13)
Priyamvada Mishra (NLIU'10)
Neha Das (NLIU'08)
Anirudh Rastogi (NLIU'06)
Apoorv Kurup (NLIU'05)
Chinmayee Prasad (NLIU'05)
Sumit Pushkar (NLIU'04)
Do follow the NLIU page on LinkedIn for more updates:
www.linkedin.com/school/national-law-institute-university/
Legal education in this country has gone to dogs. Btw, I googled, turns out that the claim about scholarships is very true.
Please can we have have more tolerance and less of ego in comments?
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