Wednesday, 19 May 2021 23:53Law schoolsAn estimated 3 minute read...
BML law dean Nigam Nuggehalli to join NLS as registrar
NLSIU Bengaluru has scooped as its new registrar the dean of BML Munjal University’s law school, Prof Nigam Nuggehalli, alongside a raft of another batch of four lateral faculty hires who have joined recently, and two more who are due to join: Arun Thiruvengadam from Azim Premji and Saurabh Bhattacharjee from NUJS Kolkata.
Nigam NuggehalliWork historyFrom: Jul 2019: Dean, School of Law , BML Munjal University (Gurgaon)Jul 2018 - Jul 2019: Visiting Professor, NLSIU (Bangalore)May 2014 - May 2018: Associate Professor, Azim Premji Foundation India (Bangalore)Oct 2008 - Apr 2014: Principal Lecturer, BPP Law School (London)EducationUniversity of Oxford, Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, LawNew York University, Master of Laws - LLM, TaxationNational Law School of India University, BA,LLB (Hons’), Law//www.legallyindia.com/images/uploads/20210519-234609.jpg Also soon to join, we understand from two sources with knowledge of the hires, are two more faculty members: - Azim Premji University Bengaluru professor of law Arun Thiruvengadam, who had previously also taught at NUS Singapore. He holds a 1995 LLB and 2001 LLM from NLSIU, as well as an LLM in 2002 and 2007 JSD (doctorate in law) from NYU law’s school, and - NUJS Kolkata assistant professor Saurabh Bhattacharjee, who is a 2005 Nalsar Hyderabad graduate and holds a 2009 LLM from Michigan University. Four new assistant professors have also already officially joined NLSIU (virtually), the first three of whom are teaching law: - Preeti Pratishruti Dash (NLU Odisha 2014 LLB holder and 2019 Harvard Law School LLM), - Prerna Dhoop (2013 KIIT BBA LLB and a bachelor in Business Administration, as well as an LLM from Duke University’s School of Law in comparative constitutional and international human rights law; she had taught at Nalsar Hyderabad as assistant professor from 2016 to 2019), and - Sharada R Shinde, who holds an LLB from Karnatak University Dharwad, and is a 2011 NLSIU LLM alumni who has also been practising at the Karnataka high court and teaching at Karnataka State Law University as an assistant professor, - Dr Anwesha Ghosh, who joined as assistant professor of history in March, and has a BA in History and an MA in comparative literature, both from Jadavpur University, as well as an MPhil at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences. All four have been interviewed on the NLSIU website. The latest raft of hires follow NLSIU under Krishnaswamy having hired nine new faculty members (eight of whom are alumni of NLSIU) in 2020, as we had first reported. Arun K. ThiruvengadamWork historyFrom: Oct 2017: Professor Of Law, School of Policy and Governance, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru IndiaJul 2015 - Sep 2017: Associate Professor, School ofPolicy and Governance, Azim Premji UniversityJan 2007 - Jun 2015: Assistant Professor, National University of Singapore, Faculty of Law (Singapore )Education1999 - 2001: National Law School of India University, LL.M , Law2001 - 2002: New York University School of Law, LL.M, Law2002 - 2007: New York University School of Law, JSD (Doctorate in Law), LawSaurabh BhattacharjeeWork historyFrom: 2009: Assistant Professor, National University of Juridical SciencesJul 2009 - Nov 2009: Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, National Law University, JodhpurJun 2005 - Jan 2008: Programme Coordinator, The Other MediaEducation2000 - 2005: National Academy of Legal Studies & Research (NALSAR) University Hyderabad, , 2008 - 2009: University of Michigan Law School, LLM, Law
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And why should you take shamnads word over all these other people who work with him and write with him and see him as a valued colleague? Over Columbia and Oxford?
This is BS. They were rivals at the time and there’s no need to bring that stuff in if you’re really evaluating him as a scholar and an academic?
Hah! Clpr pays the industry standard. If you’d criticised them other ways that would be fair but this just isn’t. And clpr isn’t some substandard research outfit neither. It’s as good as any Indian research organisation. This is just jealousy or some BS.
Calling out misogny and pointing out fake news more importantly does not mean that we are "bhakts". I, for instance, have problems with how sudhir goes about administration. So, do us and ourself a favour and don't be petty with your response.
An opportune time to reproduce the interview with the NUJS SJA President and Vice President from some months ago:
Quote:
K: NUJS has always struggled with a faculty exodus. In your opinion, why aren’t faculty members staying on?
B & D: Even at the Vice-Chancellor level, there are somethings you simply cannot effect. For example, some faculty members have a problem with the overly political nature and excessive state governmental interference in the college functioning, and not necessarily any issue with the academic rigour of the college.
Two minutes silence for Sudhir haters. Three minutes silence for NALSAR and NLUD. Four minutes silence for TLC lobby. Public day of mourning for NUJS Students.
- How many NLSIU alumni profs in total? - How many other NLU alumni profs in total? - How many total NLU alumni profs in total? - How many TLC profs in total? - How many profs approaching retirement?
Excellent news. I am personally sorry to see Saurabh Bhattacharjee leave my Alma mater (NUJS) but the hooligan culture there had ensured that virtually every professor of any merit left over the past few years. The systemic rot, avarice of the entrenched mediocre faculty and overreach of the students virtually sealed its fate. Now that he's gone a few crocodile tears will be shed but in the end the show will go on. [...]
This isn’t just the case with NUJS, although it’s problems have been in the public realm for quite a while. One hears similar stories coming out of Delhi and Hyderabad as well.
It’s simplistic to blame it all on the VCs and they should be blamed for a lot of it. However, students and other senior faculty need to consider their role in the current state of affairs as well. Practices like grade inflation and pandering to popularity among students works in the short term but harms institutions in the long run.
I don't blame it on the VC. IMHO the VC at NUJS (Ishwara Bhat) was the standard old-school TLC educated VC who did not like new ideas, was overbearing and a pain in the butt. All the NLUs had similar VCs so that's not the reason for the faculty exodus at NUJS. The real reason was the scheming of a large section of the faculty who had their own politics, played out big battles and were in ugly games against each other. The student body at NUJS is pretty toxic as well taking sides with these warring faculty factions in return for protection from disciplinary action, passing grades and other favours. It's quite telling that in the last 5 years (that has seen 3 VCs) NUJS has lost Arun, Kumarjit, Mahesh, Anuradha and now Saurabh all of whom have left for reasons other than better pay or brand name. Add to that the bitter exit of iPleaders after a successful partnership. There's a deep rot in NUJS and unless the majority of the current faculty are sacked and the out-of-control student body brought under control no VC on earth can do anything.
Yeah I’m with you. I was more responding to the rest of this thread blaming the whole thing on VCs as if the students and senior faculty aren’t complicit in how these institutions are being ruined.
Venkata Rao was not a "similar VC" to other TLC-product NLU VCs. He may have been a canny operator, but student welfare was a priority without any serious losses on the academic front.
Not true. He let go off Sid Chauhan who dared question him. He refused to hire alum, or anyone else for that matter, except in ad hoc positions where he had them under control. And just because he was lax with academic discipline doesn't mean he had student welfare at heart. This in fact is the problem. Why do students equate lack of discipline and rigour with 'welfare'? Why do they think their 'welfare' is compromised if they are asked to stick to the academic schedule and face academic consequences if they don't or if they don't put in adequate effort? It is precisely this kind of thinking that has allowed VCs to coast by being popular in the short term and actively harming student interests in the long term. This is not some endorsement of Sudhir, who can be quite pigheaded at times. This is a criticism of the other VCs whose main goal seems to be to keep students happy by giving extensions on the house, scrubbing transcripts, allowing unlimited carryovers, and giving holidays at the drop of a hat. Anyone who tries to push back is immediately branded as 'anti-student'. Why though?
I hope you're not trying to deflect on purpose. It has been litigated so many times - the legacy of Venkata Rao at NLS has been a net positive, for student welfare, academic outcomes, and Law School performance - on practically very front. What he did do, was keep the errant teacher lobby in check - no faculty member (especially the old school type, not of the global level people Sudhir is now attracting) was allowed to run their writ (often against rules, like denial of entitled exemptions, guidelines etc). So, in that, he stood by students. One could attribute motives to it - Venkata Rao's political ambition, managing situations, playing students against faculty and so on. But undeniably, it left the institution strong - Jessup, debate, recruitment, post-graduate study etc throughout Venkata Rao's tenure speaks to this.
Sudhir has been a great win to college as far as the perception and capacity side is concerned - star faculty, research output, branding and so on. But his dealings with students have been adhoc, arbitrary and frankly disappointing.
Agent of Chaos2 years agointerestingmoderated asfeatured
@Not True: You are the one who deflected the conversation by bringing up Prof. R. Venkata Rao's tenure as NLSIU VC between May 2009-July 2019, when the report is about the new faculty hires at NLS. On the faculty hiring front, it is a fact that RVR did not appoint any teacher on a permanent position during his 10 year tenure. In fact, he advertised these positions twice (in 2013 and 2017) but did not complete the process for reasons that are better known to insiders in the NLSIU Executive Council. He did appoint several people on an ad-hoc or visiting basis which offer no job-security and are severely underpaid positions. A majority of these ad-hoc appointees were incompetent people who did not prepare for their classes, were not able to deliver any meaningful content and nor were they able to understand what students wrote in their projects, let alone give them meaningful feedback. Most of these characters have been weeded out since SK took over in September 2019. Of course, the good ones among the earlier ad-hoc appointees (Kunal Ambasta, Rashmi Venkatesan, Sanyukta Chaudhary, Rahul Choragudi) are continuing at NLS and two of them have been upgraded to permanent positions which were long overdue.
I guess you might be a recent graduate (probably 2009-2014 or after) or current student who seems to be judging RVR through the very limited prism of short-term benefits and concessions given to students. Some of us have much longer institutional memories and do not agree with your characterisation of the RVR regime as a net positive for NLS. Many of the things that you describe as institutional successes (Jessup Win, Placements in Commercial Law Firms, Admissions to prestigious postgraduate programmes, success in Debate and ADR competitions) would have anyway accrued due to the organisational practices, institutional networks and reputational capital that had been accumulating for many years before RVR joined as VC in May 2009. To be specific, NLS had won Jessup as early as 1999 and the 2013 success was more a product of a continued emphasis on the activity among the student body. Please ask the four alums who were part of the 2013 team (Raag Yadava, Geetha Hariharan, Shreya Jain and Akshaya who were in the 2008-2013 batch) about their honest opinion on what RVR did to the college. Recruitments in commercial law firms were bound to be good throughout the 2010s owing to the growing depth of the NLSIU Alumni network. It must be kept in mind that other NLUs such as NALSAR, NUJS, NLU-J and GNLU have also done fairly well in the corporate legal sector, irrespective of the fluctuating quality of their respective Vice-Chancellors. Successes in Competitive Debating and ADR competitions were also the outcome of internal initiatives taken by students through the 2000s which translated into even better results during the 2010s. RVR was smart enough to recognise the strengths of the NLS student body and did not interfere with these existing structures and practices. I also recognise that he regularly supported student participation in co-curricular activities, both in a monetary form and in kind, which is something that did not happen regularly under the previous Directors/VCs.
However, on the academic front, RVR has done serious and incalculable damage, the impact of which will be felt for many years to come. Apart from not hiring faculty members on fair terms, he turned the evaluation process into a joke through the arbitrary use of re-evaluation powers (as repeatedly pointed out by Sid.C in these forums and on the NLSIU Alumni Association FB page). Students who had failed in individual subjects by large margins (getting scores in the 20s and 30s out of 100, largely because they wrote next to nothing in their answer-scripts) would magically be passed at the end of the academic year. The answer-scripts were never sent to any faculty members at other Universities. It was all done at the personal discretion of RVR. Similarly, students who barely attended 40-50% of the classes would have their attendance shortages condoned as soon as they went and touched his feet. RVR would whimsically declare non-instructional days whenever any student group approached him and would just announce blanket extensions for project submission deadlines. He also turned a blind eye towards some faculty members (both senior and junior ones) who were habitually cancelling classes, and were simply handing out easy grades to students in return for their silence. The overall teaching standards had plummeted so much that NLSIU students began to publicly talk about the 'scam' courses in each trimester (please read 'Quirk' or the SBA Pages), openly talking about how they got away with plagiarism in their projects and next to no preparation for their exams. In fact, the teachers who were actually negligent towards their professional responsibilities were given a free rein, whereas those who did their job with integrity were the ones who were regularly targeted. The fact that a few self-motivated students in each batch continued to accumulate academic and co-curricular success throughout the 2010s cannot be used as a mask to hide the widespread rot that had set in. Showing empathy towards students does not mean giving them a free pass to earn popularity in the short-run.
Having said all this, Sudhir has several faults as well. He displayed many of them during the NLAT episode last year and from what I have gathered, he has been unnecessarily rude towards students in internal meetings. However, he seems to be moving in the right direction with proactive faculty hiring (both on a permanent and visiting basis), regular review of course content and the initiation of several externally funded research projects. He needs to acknowledge that he has a problem in communicating with students. So it will be better if he delegates day-to-day administration to younger faculty members who are more sensitive to the evolving needs of the student body. The fact that Mrinal, Aparna, AKT and Nigam will now be there should lead to decision-making that is more considerate towards the needs of students from marginalised socio-economic backgrounds.
RVR had zero contribution to NLS as a debating institution. If anything, NLS was more of a debating monopoly in the Jaygo years, with NLS teams winning pretty much every Indian tournament they went to, and breaking as debaters and adjudicators abroad as well. The 2005-11 batches led the way here, but most of the work had been done and legacy established well before RVR darkened our doors.
NLS debating hasn't fallen off a cliff since, but it definitely isn't as good in terms of strength or depth.
NLS’ best worlds performances were under RVR, as were the Jessup win and runner up. If anything, all of this has fallen post-RVR. ADR, quiz all say the same story. Not sure what fantasy is being peddled here, when the first reply itself credited RVR for co-curricular success.
Not just Sid C. Let's not forget Shreya Rao, far and away the most competent tax teacher we had, leaving specifically because RVR refused to act when she caught people openly cheating in her exam. The sense of entitlement students garnered in his tenure is flabbergasting. Doubt if they weren't all (deservedly) taken down a notch or two in the post law-school world
People inside were not getting their cut, that was the original problem. Those were the ones who riled the students. The latter never realised that they were helping the university lose a revenue stream, which would affect them only eventually.
You do realise that both of those NLUs have also lost very competent faculty to other institutions in the recent past, right? Maybe you should ask them why they chose to do so.
Nalsar 222 years agointerestingtop ratedcontroversial
We're quite happy with Faizan Mustafa, thank you. We've had many great teachers hired in the past few years (Chinmay Deshmukh, Sahana Ramesh, Niharika Salar, Manisha Sethi, Malavika Prasad, courses by Abhinav Chandrachud etc.). Though most of these new hires are from NLUs and are great teachers, I also personally don't believe being from an NLU guarantees that one is a good teacher or administrator. Some of our best faculty are TLCs and it's quite sad to see all their experience being discarded on other comment threads because people want the NLU tag that guarantees nothing. Faizan Mustafa is also doing great work for the surrounding Shamirpet citizens (organised relief efforts during lockdowns etc.), which I find a lot more worthy of applause. On the other hand, Sudhir has bungled many things with respect to administration (apart from faculty hires) and I know a lot of my NLS friends are unhappy with his reign. My only point being - don't be hasty to discard good professors and admin just on the basis of a person being an alumnus. It's ridiculous nepotistic behaviour like that which ruins an institution and makes it a homogeneous echo chamber.
Student popularity is not the only metric with which these things are measured. As good as those young ones are - it would be foolish to think that anyone at nalsar currently is as well regarded a scholar as Arun or Nigam or Mrinal or Aparna. They just aren’t. And to pretend you don’t lose something when that happens- is just to stick your head in the sand.
Sudhir and Jayna have done many charitable things in their life. They don’t seek PR for it is all. They do the good work and move on to the next thing.
I may not agree with everything that Sudhir has done as an administrator so far, but the speed at which he's managed recruit a group of highly competent people cutting through the usual red tapes is really commendable. Credit must be given where it is due.
Sudhir is not charitable, by ANY means [...]. Ask anyone on campus how insensitive, rigid, and frankly unreasonable he is. A non-binary student having mental issues was asked to fend for themselves without any support. For a man who says progressive things to his donors, Facebook Oversight Board and the like, the hypocrisy is disgusting. KIAN please come and see the reality of NLSIU rather than broadcasting fancy sounding CVs.
Let me ask you this. Was the student in trouble asking for help with their problems? If it’s mental health related did they have a plan for how they’d get better? Did they want help with that plan? Or did they just want extensions and free grades?
Cause giving extensions and free grades doesn’t help anyone and actually harms everyone else who also has those problems and got through it.
Students also need to learn that while they are entitled to an education after admission- they’re not entitled to a consequence free life. And enforcing standards isn’t oppression.
I’ve had mental health problems in law school - I failed more than a few courses because of them. I just took it on the chin like an adult instead of blaming the world because I hadn’t figured out how to handle my problems.
Sudhir and jayna work with vulnerable groups and fight for their rights. Even his first salary he gave away to keep Alf alive. And nalsar sits on encroached land and illegal sand mining happens right across the street with the university doing nothing about it.
Sorry, cannot agree with you there. If a student suffering from mental health issues asks the admin what they want and not what they need, the admin's responsibility does not end with simply saying that they cannot have what they want and hoping that the student too would learn to "take it on their chin". It actually includes trying to provide them with what they need, which also includes a frank discussion and above all, empathy. Sudhir has a lot of good qualities, and I rightly approve of these recruitment by him, but empathy towards students has never been his strong suit. Yet such discussions are really not relevant in this thread. It is not about judging Sudhir about an administrator, but acknowledging one of his good moves and a positive development for NLS.
You should speak when you know the facts, rather than offer patronising advice to those in difficult situations. Anyone in NLS right now knows exactly what this particular situation is. It was hearbreaking to read this person's account of Sudhir's high-handedness. I only hope that one day things improve.
This is in response to Comment 11.1 written by 'Nalsar 22'. I agree with your broader points that (1) FM has done a reasonably good job with faculty hiring since he took over at NALSAR in April 2012, and (2) Having studied at a NLU is not an indicator of competence in classroom teaching or academic administration.
However, some of the supporting information that you have cited does not really help your first point. For instance, let us look at the details related to the recent faculty hiring at NALSAR and NLSIU. Out of the recent hires at NALSAR that you have mentioned, Chinmay Deshmukh (joined in January 2019), Sahana Ramesh (joined in June 2019) and Niharika Salar (joined in June 2020) are all in ad-hoc positions. This means that they currently have annual contracts with fixed pay, but their services can be terminated without assignment of reasons with one month's notice. So unless they are given permanent positions within the next 1-2 years, there is no guarantee that they will continue at NALSAR. Among the other names that you have mentioned, Malavika Prasad (NALSAR LLB 2013, Michigan LLM 2017) and Abhinav Chandrachud (GLC LLB 2008, Harvard LLM 2009, Stanford JSD 2014) have only taught elective courses on a visiting basis. They are among several other practitioners and scholars who have taught visiting elective courses. NLSIU, NUJS and NLU-Delhi have an equally impressive list of visiting faculty members who are teaching elective courses when they have the time. These cannot be equated with full-time appointments of faculty members on a permanent basis. Dr. Manisha Sethi is an experienced scholar in Sociology and Criminal Justice, however she has also joined in a temporary position while on leave from Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), New Delhi. There is no certainty that she will continue at NALSAR unless she is given a permanent position as an Associate Professor at the least. I think she meets the requirements for a full Professor position.
Apart from the names mentioned above, there are some other teachers hired in 2017 (N. Manohar Reddy, Varun Malik, Vivek Mukherjee) and 2018 (Alok Verma, Utkarsh Leo) who are currently in ad-hoc positions. So if FM is expected to give permanent positions to Chinmay, Sahana and Niharika, the people ahead of them in the queue will also expect the same. This will not be an easy task, especially given the context of the pandemic and the fact that FM's second term as VC is due to end in March 2022.
If you do want to make pointed comparisons with the recent recruitments at NLS, please consider the facts below. Since taking over at NALSAR in April 2012, FM has appointed the following people in permanent positions (Law and Social Sciences):-
- Interviews conducted in February 2014: Dr. T. Kannan (Sociology), Mr. Sourabh Bharti (Intellectual Property, Administrative Law), Dr. S.N.A Shafi (Commercial Laws), Ms. Surabhi Rajpal (Contract Law). Surabhi left the University in October 2016. - Interviews conducted in July 2015: Dr. Sudhanshu Kumar (Company Law, Competition Law), Mr. Anshuman Shukla (Constitutional Law, Labour Law), Mr. Jagteshwar Singh Sohi (International Law, Environmental). Anshuman left the University in April 2016 and Jagteshwar left the University in February 2021. -Interviews conducted in April 2017: Rajesh Kapoor (Contract Law, Arbitration), Sidharth Chauhan (Constitutional Law, Legal Theory, Comparative Law), Ashwini Kumar Pendyala (Civil Procedure, Property Law, Insurance Law). - Interviews conducted in March 2018: Dr. Harathi Vageeshan was regularised for Political Science, after 8 years of ad-hoc service. Dr. Murali Karanam was hired on a 5 year contract with scale. - Interviews conducted in November 2020: Dr. Neha Pathakji and Dr. Anirban Chakraborty were appointed as Associate Professors. Neha has been teaching at NALSAR since 2009 and applied for a direct appointment, while Anirban was a lateral hire. Two people were offered full-Professor positions (Dr. Pushp Kumar from DU has declined, while Dr. Yogesh Pratap Singh from NLUO has asked for more time to decide).
Apart from the above names, seven people have been given permanent positions in the Department of Management Studies , with 2 of them currently serving as Associate Professors (Pinaki Pattanaik, Y.V.R. Murthy) and 5 others as Assistant Professors (Mahendra Shukla, Rahul Burra, Praveen Munukuntla, Asish Panda, A. Kishore Kumar).
In comparison, NLSIU has appointed at least 14 people to permanent positions through interviews conducted in February 2020 and February 2021 respectively. - 3 for Full Professor positions (Mrinal Satish, N.S. Nigam due to join in June 2021, Arun Thiruvengadam due to join in October 2021) - 2 for Associate Professor positions (Aparna Chandra, Saurabh Bhattacharjee due to join in July 2021) - 3 Assistant Professors for Social Sciences (Sushmita Pati, Atreyee Majumdar, Anwesha Ghosh) - At least 6 others as Assistant Professors in Law (Kunal Ambasta, Rashmi Venkatesan, Shreya Shree, Prerna Dhoop, Preeti Dash, Sharada Shinde). - 2 other fairly competent people are currently in contractual positions (Sanyukta Choudhury, Raag Yadava) and several others have been brought in as visiting faculty to offer a range of elective/seminar courses.
Please note that FM has been in charge for 9 plus years, Sudhir has been in office for 1 year and 8 months. So in all honesty, there really is no competition here. If you are concerned about NALSAR's future, you and your classmates should be asking FM about his faculty hiring plans in AY 2021-2022.
I'm not arguing with you re your main points, but couple of additions for context. One is that when Sudhir had taken over, NLSIU had not appointed anyone for over a decade. So a large number of people were definitely needed immediately. Compared to that, NALSAR usually kept up with its recruitments over the years, so the timewise comparison should not be made on an absolute basis perhaps.
The second point is more like a doubt that I have. Are all the young people in NALSAR who have contractual positions UGC NET qualified or PhD holders? Because otherwise the current scene makes it tricky to offer them permanent positions. Litigations might commence immediately. I do not whether the younger people employed by NLSIU in permanent positions are similarly qualified either. If not, and if the EC has approved their appointments, then there might be problems later on. p.s. I am not a supporter of these archaic UGC norms.
@Guest: You are right. We should not be making absolute comparisons between FM and SK since the immediate background at NLSIU and NALSAR was entirely different. However, it was important to explain the differences between the nature of appointments (permanent/ad-hoc/visiting) that have happened at both institutions in the recent past. Since I have friends teaching at both institutions, it was relatively easy to put together this list of appointments.
With respect to your question about NALSAR, they have a full-time faculty strength of 48 people at the moment. Out of these, 17 are currently in ad-hoc positions (annual renewable contracts) and at least 12 of them meet the UGC eligibility criteria (4 of whom are PhDs, 8 others have UGC-NET) for being appointed to permanent positions. Some of the ad-hocs have been there for 4-5 years and there is one (the History teacher) who has put in 8+years. So if FM really wants to, most of this group can be given permanent positions without much fuss. In fact, he had conducted interviews for the Management Department and the Higher Ranks (Associate Professor/Professor) as recently as November 2020.
All the people who have been given permanent positions at NLSIU through the last two rounds of interviews (Feb 2020 and Feb 2021) also meet the UGC requirements. So there is no scope for litigation.
Nice try. People tried to make Srividhya happen at NLUD, but as Regina told Gretchen, "stop trying to make Srividhya happen. Its not going to happen" at NALSAR or any top NLU.
Please interview Faizan Mustafa (NALSAR VC), Srikrishna Deva Rao (NLUD VC) and N.K. Chakrabarti (NUJS VC) about their plans for faculty hiring and curriculum development. They were earlier blaming faculty attrition to the higher salaries offered by JGLS. That is another story. SK is going to be at NLSIU at least till September 2024. How are they going to compete with this kind of faculty hiring by NLSIU?
On another note, those who are looking to do credible PhDs in Law can now consider NLSIU as a serious option within India. Those who apply for the 2021-2022 intake will have several first-rate supervisors available at that institution - namely Mrinal Satish, Aparna Chandra, Rahul Singh, Sarasu Thomas, Sudhir himself and now NS Nigam and AKT. I can really see some serious scholarship coming out from Nagarbhavi by the mid-2020s.
How will Rahul Singh guide anyone for a PhD? Does he have a PhD? I remember LI articles announcing him leaving Trilegal for Oxford PhD, but did he actually get one? What is the real story on that front?
@kian this is a fair question to ask, please don’t censor.
NLSIU probably has the best faculty now. Jindal might have better absolute numbers but keep in mind the batch size and the personalised attention that students can get at nls
Why do you have to bring us into this discussion? We are happy that you have a great set of faculty. Kudos to Prof Sudhir for pulling this off despite the constraints under which he has to operate.
That being said, regarding the personalised attention, our class sizes are around 50-60 despite the large batch size and in elective it can be as less as than 10 students. The faculty-student ratio has in fact improved over the years from 1:15 to 1:9. I could go on head to head on star faculty but the only thing that will achieve here is unpleasantness and nothing else.
Ignore the anonymized comments posted here. Nobody in their right mind at JGLS is of the opinion that NLSIU is not a great institution. You should be happy with what you have. Despite, the popular perception, we are not idiots, we do have different preferences and we are happy with what we have here at JGLS. Why turn this into a bitter competition unnecessarily?
Nobody at Jiggles is "of the opinion that NLSIU is not a great institution". The arrogance dripping throughout this comment, for someone attending a law college by, of, and for the most affluent in India - set up in campus that resembles a resort than any academic space for learning, taught by fly-in-fly-out sort of high-CV (but low long term institutional commitment) seminar speakers, all in all a batch of 400 that pays to subsidise the outsized opportunities of a select few (10-15 per batch), while splashing a billionaire's fortune to create and sustain social capital. Frankly, it is vulgar. Not a single student who got into NLS/NLUD/Nalsar is choosing to go Jiggles. Of course, entrance exams aren't perfect so a few exceptional people might not get through, and might choose to head to Sonepat - I bear them no ill-will. But it doesn't change the fact of what this so-called "institution" really is.
And for them to patronisingly say 'we haven't deigned to denigrate NLSIU to be a sub-par institution, so you see how great we are' is so rich. And I'm not even from NLSIU, but reading this is tragi-comic.
arrogance dripping throughout this comment, for someone attending a law college by, of, and for the most affluent in India.........while splashing a billionaire's fortune to create and sustain social capital. Frankly, it is vulgar.
Just read NLS placement stats. Was pleasantly surprised to find that majority of the folks joining NGOs and litigation chamber to advance the cause of the marginalized. Oh, wait, sorry, I misread the thing, the majority of the batch took up positions at corporate law firms advancing the cause of these billionaires hoping to make bank at year-end with their bonuses. Of course, that will not be vulgar at all. Double standards much?
Quote:
set up in campus that resembles a resort than any academic space for learning
I had the privilege of visiting the NYU and Columbia campus sometime back, both of them apparently match the criteria of having Quote:
a batch of 400 that pays to subsidise the outsized opportunities of a select few (10-15 per batch
. They going by your definition will also meet the criteria of Quote:
campus that resembles a resort than any academic space for learning
So this is an example of the hatred towards JGLS that some people were talking about earlier. I am not from JGLS myself, but I cannot help commenting that you are trying to deliberately start a face-off, and seem quite bitter for no obvious reason. There is nothing objectionable in particular in the comment to which you have objected, and you had to resort to misquote it to prove your point.
Fantastic news! This is how NLSIU will regain its glory and put huge distance between itself and the others. Personally attended classes by AKT, Sudhir and Nigam. Fantastic teachers who have further evolved with time. Extremely happy for my Alma Mater.
Where are the pro-admin/pro-government trolls who keep posting on LI? Let's say it loud and clear: The government of Mamata Banerjee is single-handedly responsible for thr destruction of NUJS. Do not blame Ishwar Bhat, because NALSAR once had an even worse VC like Veer Singh. I request LI not to mark my comment as facts contested because I am stating verifiable facts below:
- Mamata has since appointed a little-known lawyer and non-barrister (former junior of her MP) as AG . This man controls the NUJS EC. As does her controversial aw minister.
- This duo appointed a TMC spokesman with no legal or academic background (Suparno Moitra) to the VC search committee, removing him when students objected. Check LI/B&B reports.
- The VC appointment was carried out in the two-month tenure of the acting CJ, instead of waiting for Justice Radhakrishnan to assume office. VC Vivekanand was rejected in favour of a man rejected as VC from multiple colleges (check LI/B&B reports on NLU Ranchi VC appointment)
- The NUJS GC has been systematically cleansed of good people and replaced with TMC puppets. This is how it looked under Madhava Menon/Chimni/MP Singh, supported by the Left government: Tons of SC judges, Fali Nariman, KK Venugopal, former SC Dipankar Gupta, Padma Vibhushan scientist Raja Ramanna, then Statesman editor and respected journalist CR Irani. Check past RTI documents on NUJS website. These names are listed.
- During Left Rule, two Nobel laureates (Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz) lectured at NUJS when the college was barely 2 or 3 years old. Narayana Murthy also lectured. Who has Mamata invited in her 10 years of power? All good guests were student invitees (IDG).
The SJA ought to have publicly condemned the government and Mamata herself. Instead, they "cancelled" the governor and invited Derek O'Brien. He unethically recorded NUJS students and uploaded it on Twitter to claim support for the TMC'S position on NUJS. He used the NUJS logo as well. twitter.com/derekobrienmp/status/1215617274083561472?lang=en
SB has made it clear that he has left because of the overwhelming administrative burden put on him, and not because of political pressure or interference. Which is absolutely true. It is also true that the ruling regime has been interfering a lot. So would the right wing option if it ever comes to power. Please do not bring the governor up in this discussion, the current person holding that office is a disgrace to it and a political lackey.
Do you expect him to say "I quit because I was tired of the malafide actions of the students and my colleagues around me". Or do you expect him to say "I quit because I could not put up with the SJA nonsense any more".
The students and faculty had their own reasons for disliking him. The rest of the faculty were (understandably) insecure by his presence and commitment. The students disliked his being a stickler for the right way and refusal to compromise his integrity for a handful of marks. If he was a 9/10 the rest of the faculty would get negative scores.
Kaushik Basu, Kailash Satyarthi, a list of well-known academics have been invited for multiple formal endowment lectures. To be fair, inviting these people to the university is not something that the government should interfere with anyway. That's up to the university administration. Having said that, I am not suggesting for a second that the university has not become worse off during the TMC regime.
Kian, you know Faizan Mustafa and SKD Rao, right? Ask Faizan hp many NLU vs TLC alumni he has hired. Ask Rao about Mrinal/Aparna departures and replacements.
This is only the beginning of Sudhir's reforms. Next steps:
- Partnership with top law schools abroad. - Partnership with IIM - If Supreme Court upholds Karnataka HC decision on NLSIU being in a different class, then requesting govt for Institution of National Importance status. - Hopefully Claxit.
Only jealous students from other NLUs are dissing Sudhir. At NLSIU everyone is thrilled. The anti-Sudhir comments are also very stupid and trollish. Jealous + brainless.
Kian, one complaint I have about you is that you do incomplete stories. Please complete this story by looking at the faculty situation at other NLUs and asking other VCs why they only wore TLC people. The TLC mafia monopoly needs to end.
NIRF is no big deal as rank 1 is locked in for the next 10 years. The focus now has to be the QS ranking and declaration as an Institution of National Importance or Institution of Eminence.
Liked him, yes. Wanted to live up to the standards expected by him, no. Admin exploited him, made him do bulk of other departmental work, insulted him before external people, denied him any promotion in a decade, piled on chores that could and should have been done by other faculty and non-teaching staff, put him in multiple committees and then ignored all his suggestions and recommendations. It's a wonder that he could last for so long. Credit to his resilience and commitment.
The number of complement faculty members left at NUJS is now in single digit. Very soon the rest would also leave unless they are tied to the city somehow because of family or similar reasons. Neither do the admin and the students in general have any strong long term vision for the institution, nor do they have the inclination to put in the necessary effort. Most of the faculty are either going through the motions, or else close to giving up. The staff other than the faculty members are the most highly paid and the least competent of all the NLUs. The reputation, alumni base, and the attrition rate of law firms still ensure a good placement scene, and individual brilliance of a handful of students begets certain other achievements. Existing institutional contribution to any of that is close to negligible. Any objective insider would agree to that.
Saurabh sir was tied to the city as much as it can get - he is from Kolkata and his family lives here. It seems that even the faculty from the city does not want to work here anymore. We need to interview all these people who have left and find out why they are leaving rather than speculate reasons for why they are leaving. I request Kian or the SJA to do this and publish these interviews. Let us understand why this is happening and do something to prevent it.
SJA knows exactly why people are leaving. They would never self-introspect or admit that students are also partially responsible for the exodus. The admin and politics are definitely other factors too. However, for the last two years, SJA has stopped pushing on those fronts too. The current president for two years running barely confronts the admin other than for seeking extensions, attendance and manipulating exam schedules. The original good work done by the Academic Review Committee of the students has not been followed up and largely allowed to go dormant. Compared with the SJAs pre 2011 or between 2014 and 2018, the student body is now highly lethargic and ineffective.
It is permanent, although he would officially go on lien for the first year until his probationary period down there is over. That's how it usually happens.
Quite honestly, I think it makes sense to shut down the NUJS SJA and instead have a student union system (ABVP and TMC). I say this in all seriousness. Look at what a student union can do instead of the SJA:
- Direct access to ministers and lobbying for funds (ABVP for centre, TMC for state) - Possible access to big corporates who fund political parties, ask them for money - Lobby for INI status - Literally grab corrupt officials by the collar and beat them up, instead of taking them to court (like was done with the Registrar). - Not be laughed at when submitting petitions
Incredible how a lot of the alumni supporting Sudhir here seems to know that he has been an absolute despot since he took over, paying no heed to the mental health of students, just denying basic rights because he has the power to do so. In the two weeks where the college lost around 10 members, both current and old, and where a large number of students and their families were struggling with Covid, Sudhir spent his time calling meetings on the expansion of the college and denying requests for extension or not responding to them altogether. If you really love your college, raise your voices and come stand in solidarity with the students who’ve been throttled by his actions.
If things are so bad, why aren't the students protesting openly? After all, they did so in order to get Sudhir in! The fact that they are not doing anything like that goes to show that the doomsday picture that is being painted on LI anonymously is at best an exaggeration. Counter this with logic and not with outrage.
SBA is a shadow of itself. Sudhir has taken away all powers. The last GBM was a joke. Things are pretty bad. You are either an out of touch alumni or someone with no stake but if you really care - just ask any current NLS student you know and you'll know.
Do you even listen to yourself? What is the SBA other than a group of students? And what power has Sudhir taken away? The power of students to send mails, hold virtual meetings, form a consensus, stage protests, write open letters, use social media? Don't make me laugh. If this is the wet blanket spirit that you have after getting arguably the finest legal education possible in this country, then you deserve to be treated disdainfully by the admin like the paper tiger that you are. Don't melodramatically pose as if the jackboot of the oppressor is on your necks and you can't breathe. You have got plenty of power, just not the will to use it, clearly.
We deserve it, lol. A student who was diagnosed with severe depression by the university counsellor, and hospitalised for COVID (submitted the proof) was denied project extension. Several first years who were either hospitalised or suffered from COVID (submitted the test results) were denied project extensions. A first year who was diagnosed with COVID and was at the hospital to check on his parents had to complete all his projects in the hospital because the admin denied him extension - all he asked for was a 2 day extension. First year students, already the most overburdened of the lot, have extra classes during this time. Exam duration which was kept at 4 hours last trim has been reduced to 3.5 hrs and was communicated 10 days before the exam. We have no clarity over how exams will be conducted because Sud refuses to give anything in writing for fear of cases (his own words). Nobody knows how the repeat exams will be conducted.
Last GBM the visibly bored interim Prez conducted a three hour sad fest and no actions have been taken since then. Perhaps we do deserve everything that is happening to us.
What this person is not saying: there was a general week long extension given to everyone because of the covid situation. The exam rules don't allow for any extension beyond this. Even the VC is not pauthorised to give such an extension. Extra classes are organized by teachers not by the VC. Has he even been informed that extra classes are being conducted? Have students complained? Also please let everyone know how many extra classes were done and whether attendance was required. The exam time has been reduced from 4 hours to 3.5 hours but it is not longer proctored. When the exam was 8 hours long, students complained. So it was brought down to 4 hours, but with proctoring. Students complained again about the proctoring. Now proctoring has been done away with and exam time has been reduced to 3.5 hours to prevent 'collaboration'. Agree or disagree with these decisions, but these are not just some despot trying to make life miserable for students. And students know this. That is why despite all the cribbing, the SBA won't take any action. The bulk of the NLS students here act as if the university is doing them a great injustice by requiring them to study!
No week long general extension was given. The last date on which you could submit your project was the same, just the negative marks for submitting in the last days were taken away. Stop fooling yourself and others. Maybe you come from a generation where sacrificing life and sanity for rigour was cool, we don't.
VC was informed, so was the registrar. Registrar promised no extra classes. They still happened. Apart from looking at just the number of extra classes (8 hours in total till now, I believe), we should also look at what that means for the students. First years have classes from 8 am till 3 pm (6 hours ie 3×2) after which they have to deal with projects and studies. So conducting a 2 or 4 hour extra class (the recordings of which are not available on the LMS) is a huge burden. They have extra classes in the last week before their exams too. In this time, they also have to prepare for their vivas and exams. Keep in mind that they have 5 subjects/trimester which is already way more rigorous than the general 4 sub/trim.
Surprisingly, VC only cares about the AER when it suits him. AER has been flouted plenty of times so the We cAnT do sHit cuz AER is bogus.
The students applying for extension on the basis of special circumstances did not even receive a reply after 7/8 days of writing to the admin.
Professors have been much more understanding than the admin. Some have openly voiced concerns about the treatment (including those hired by his Highness).
Perhaps we should give students the benefit of doubt for once and not jump at the first chance we get to portray them as lazy free loaders.
SBA is shit that's why it's not doing anything. Ask anyone who won a case against sudhir in HC and you'd know why nobody wants to go to court anymore.
We are glad that he got us great teachers. Believe it or not, we do love studying and the RvR era teachers (some of them) had to go but that does not mean you could be a dictator and play with students just because you can.
@LoL: Why exactly are the current students not staging collective protests or complaining to the EC or the Chancellor about the VC? I fail to see why any of those would be a problem if enough number of students are genuinely aggrieved by his actions. He isn't keeping you prisoners or forcing you on a gunpoint to behave as if everything is alright, is he now? Nor is he chairing the GBMs and monitoring agenda items there. If the amount of venting that's done against him by purported students here can be replicated outside even by 10%, then people would be bound to take notice. But nobody is doing anything of the sort, which is what is making outsiders think that things aren't really as bad as you are saying.
@Sudhindra Modi: You are referring to the COVID-19 related deaths in the NLSIU community without providing the full information about what has transpired. The University had organised online condolence meetings within two days of the unfortunate demise of Prof. V.S. Mallar (Former Registrar), Dr. R.S. Kumbar (Former Librarian) and Justice Mohan Shantanagoudar (SC Judge and Member of NLS EC). Faculty members such as Sudhir, Sarasu and Babu Mathew were very much present in these condolence meetings, both for the alumni and current students. The families of the two serving staff members who have passed away (Mr. Ravi and Mr. Srinivas) have been provided with ex-gratia assistance which is in addition to their entitlements under the University's Group Insurance Scheme. Two other staff members have been helped for paying the hospital bills for their family members. The University has set up a COVID Relief Fund where monetary contributions made by faculty, alumni and other well-wishers will be used to assist staff members with their medical costs in the coming months. Under the present circumstances, what else do you expect from the University?
There was nothing wrong in holding a meeting to discuss the ideas regarding reservation policies and the possibilities of future expansion at NLS. I was there at that meeting and several current students took part in it and made constructive points. The discussion was conducted in a sober and dignified manner. I fail to see what was wrong in holding that meeting. If you want to criticise him, at least pick on substantive issues.
Sudhir is the best VC for NLSIU and is doing fantastic things for the college. 99% support him. The anti-Sudhir comments are from a few disgruntled students or faculty who represent just 1%.
Is NLSIU going to have separate entrance test this year in 2021 as the CLAT Consortium has allowed separate entrance test to those NLUs which have trimester system? But, it would also be conducted by CLAT Consortium.
The alumni and others here really need to understand that while recruiting great faculty is important, it's not everything. Before praising Sudhir only based on the great things you hear he's done through the media, ask the current students how pathetically he has managed the affairs at NLS, specially problematic are his decisions since March 2020 when things went virtual.
Not only has he dealt with genuine student concerns apathetically, he has also disregard the powers he has to be exercised in emergency situations under the NLSIU Act. And what worse emergencies than the Covid-19 wave we're going through right now?
My only request to people praising Sudhir here is to look at his decisions holistically. You need to understand that students aren't just finding excuses to somehow evade academic requirements/or "don't want to study". Only 20 or so people who have had genuine Covid related concerns asked for an extension, not some 100 people. But do you know how Sudhir responded? By asking them to take that course next year, when he could easily and without impacting anything have granted a 2-3 days extension.
Before claiming that students at NLS love Sudhir and only 1% are cribbing; before claiming that students at NLS don't want to study, please understand that the students were the primary force who brought in Sudhir's appointment through the process. And why did we do that? To make sure that the standards of NLS improve. We are happy that we are getting great faculty at NLS, but I implore you to think about it - faculty recruitment is really not anything. Have some basic sense and think critically before making your claims. Talk to any current student at NLS and ask what's going on before you concretise your beliefs merely on the basis of what you thought NLS to be. See it for what it really is under Sudhir.
You keep coming back to the comments section alleging that all the current NLSIU students hate Sudhir and most of his decisions. Never do you have the answer to the simple question, why aren't they exhibiting that outrage anywhere at all where it can be verified? Any proof of popular protest other than the solitary anon LI comment?
I see that 34 chooses to simply downvote this response instead of actually having any answer to it. As usual. Doubtless he would again try this all anew in another thread soon enough.
Please note the NLSIU had already achieved the position of "No. 1 Law School in India" much before Sudhir joined NLS. Madhava Menon had recruited faculty already teaching in conventional colleges but metamorphosed them into a dedicated and homogenous team. That was possible because of the statemantship of Menon who had a compassionate heart, though a tough hard task master he was. The recent recruitment of faculty comprising of NLUs' alumni will enhance the research output only. Apathetic governance seen during Covid times is altogether a different issue.
I am not an NLS student but I sympathise with them. Sure, you can't see signs of widespread protest on LI but there is a huge world outside of LI. You want to see signs of unrest in NLS? I'll be happy to tell you that the students there had planned to boycott classes. The boycott fell through one day before it was supposed to begin due to poor planning but the fact that a majority of the student body agreed to boycott classes shows that not everything is going well there.
He is an outsider. He is an auto rickshaw driver staying in Nagarbhavi, so he knows what is cooking and boiling inside the NLS campus and in hostels. He has smelled the smoke from a distance ; logical conclusion: fire must be there.
Why don't you encourage or ask them to show visible protests? It is better to guide your student friends in NLS to become visible to the eyes of the administration than to post your stories here on LI.
That's because not sufficient number of students are interested. Otherwise it would have happened long back. This is a false narrative of oppression that's being peddled here anonymously.
This recent recruitment confirms the old boys network mentality. NLSIU will continue to be mediocre and conservative. This is demonstrated by the lack of innovation in its syllabus over 30 years.
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Read how Shamnad Basheer perceived Sudhir Krishnaswamy's accumen in spicyip.com/2007/03/mashelkar-committee-report-and-industry.html
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This is BS. They were rivals at the time and there’s no need to bring that stuff in if you’re really evaluating him as a scholar and an academic?
Quote:nujswritersblock.wordpress.com/2020/09/14/in-focus-the-president-vice-president-of-the-sja/
- How many other NLU alumni profs in total?
- How many total NLU alumni profs in total?
- How many TLC profs in total?
- How many profs approaching retirement?
It’s simplistic to blame it all on the VCs and they should be blamed for a lot of it. However, students and other senior faculty need to consider their role in the current state of affairs as well. Practices like grade inflation and pandering to popularity among students works in the short term but harms institutions in the long run.
Sudhir has been a great win to college as far as the perception and capacity side is concerned - star faculty, research output, branding and so on. But his dealings with students have been adhoc, arbitrary and frankly disappointing.
I guess you might be a recent graduate (probably 2009-2014 or after) or current student who seems to be judging RVR through the very limited prism of short-term benefits and concessions given to students. Some of us have much longer institutional memories and do not agree with your characterisation of the RVR regime as a net positive for NLS. Many of the things that you describe as institutional successes (Jessup Win, Placements in Commercial Law Firms, Admissions to prestigious postgraduate programmes, success in Debate and ADR competitions) would have anyway accrued due to the organisational practices, institutional networks and reputational capital that had been accumulating for many years before RVR joined as VC in May 2009. To be specific, NLS had won Jessup as early as 1999 and the 2013 success was more a product of a continued emphasis on the activity among the student body. Please ask the four alums who were part of the 2013 team (Raag Yadava, Geetha Hariharan, Shreya Jain and Akshaya who were in the 2008-2013 batch) about their honest opinion on what RVR did to the college. Recruitments in commercial law firms were bound to be good throughout the 2010s owing to the growing depth of the NLSIU Alumni network. It must be kept in mind that other NLUs such as NALSAR, NUJS, NLU-J and GNLU have also done fairly well in the corporate legal sector, irrespective of the fluctuating quality of their respective Vice-Chancellors. Successes in Competitive Debating and ADR competitions were also the outcome of internal initiatives taken by students through the 2000s which translated into even better results during the 2010s. RVR was smart enough to recognise the strengths of the NLS student body and did not interfere with these existing structures and practices. I also recognise that he regularly supported student participation in co-curricular activities, both in a monetary form and in kind, which is something that did not happen regularly under the previous Directors/VCs.
However, on the academic front, RVR has done serious and incalculable damage, the impact of which will be felt for many years to come. Apart from not hiring faculty members on fair terms, he turned the evaluation process into a joke through the arbitrary use of re-evaluation powers (as repeatedly pointed out by Sid.C in these forums and on the NLSIU Alumni Association FB page). Students who had failed in individual subjects by large margins (getting scores in the 20s and 30s out of 100, largely because they wrote next to nothing in their answer-scripts) would magically be passed at the end of the academic year. The answer-scripts were never sent to any faculty members at other Universities. It was all done at the personal discretion of RVR. Similarly, students who barely attended 40-50% of the classes would have their attendance shortages condoned as soon as they went and touched his feet. RVR would whimsically declare non-instructional days whenever any student group approached him and would just announce blanket extensions for project submission deadlines. He also turned a blind eye towards some faculty members (both senior and junior ones) who were habitually cancelling classes, and were simply handing out easy grades to students in return for their silence. The overall teaching standards had plummeted so much that NLSIU students began to publicly talk about the 'scam' courses in each trimester (please read 'Quirk' or the SBA Pages), openly talking about how they got away with plagiarism in their projects and next to no preparation for their exams. In fact, the teachers who were actually negligent towards their professional responsibilities were given a free rein, whereas those who did their job with integrity were the ones who were regularly targeted. The fact that a few self-motivated students in each batch continued to accumulate academic and co-curricular success throughout the 2010s cannot be used as a mask to hide the widespread rot that had set in. Showing empathy towards students does not mean giving them a free pass to earn popularity in the short-run.
Having said all this, Sudhir has several faults as well. He displayed many of them during the NLAT episode last year and from what I have gathered, he has been unnecessarily rude towards students in internal meetings. However, he seems to be moving in the right direction with proactive faculty hiring (both on a permanent and visiting basis), regular review of course content and the initiation of several externally funded research projects. He needs to acknowledge that he has a problem in communicating with students. So it will be better if he delegates day-to-day administration to younger faculty members who are more sensitive to the evolving needs of the student body. The fact that Mrinal, Aparna, AKT and Nigam will now be there should lead to decision-making that is more considerate towards the needs of students from marginalised socio-economic backgrounds.
NLS debating hasn't fallen off a cliff since, but it definitely isn't as good in terms of strength or depth.
Sudhir and Jayna have done many charitable things in their life. They don’t seek PR for it is all. They do the good work and move on to the next thing.
Cause giving extensions and free grades doesn’t help anyone and actually harms everyone else who also has those problems and got through it.
Students also need to learn that while they are entitled to an education after admission- they’re not entitled to a consequence free life. And enforcing standards isn’t oppression.
I’ve had mental health problems in law school - I failed more than a few courses because of them. I just took it on the chin like an adult instead of blaming the world because I hadn’t figured out how to handle my problems.
Sudhir and jayna work with vulnerable groups and fight for their rights. Even his first salary he gave away to keep Alf alive. And nalsar sits on encroached land and illegal sand mining happens right across the street with the university doing nothing about it.
However, some of the supporting information that you have cited does not really help your first point. For instance, let us look at the details related to the recent faculty hiring at NALSAR and NLSIU. Out of the recent hires at NALSAR that you have mentioned, Chinmay Deshmukh (joined in January 2019), Sahana Ramesh (joined in June 2019) and Niharika Salar (joined in June 2020) are all in ad-hoc positions. This means that they currently have annual contracts with fixed pay, but their services can be terminated without assignment of reasons with one month's notice. So unless they are given permanent positions within the next 1-2 years, there is no guarantee that they will continue at NALSAR. Among the other names that you have mentioned, Malavika Prasad (NALSAR LLB 2013, Michigan LLM 2017) and Abhinav Chandrachud (GLC LLB 2008, Harvard LLM 2009, Stanford JSD 2014) have only taught elective courses on a visiting basis. They are among several other practitioners and scholars who have taught visiting elective courses. NLSIU, NUJS and NLU-Delhi have an equally impressive list of visiting faculty members who are teaching elective courses when they have the time. These cannot be equated with full-time appointments of faculty members on a permanent basis. Dr. Manisha Sethi is an experienced scholar in Sociology and Criminal Justice, however she has also joined in a temporary position while on leave from Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), New Delhi. There is no certainty that she will continue at NALSAR unless she is given a permanent position as an Associate Professor at the least. I think she meets the requirements for a full Professor position.
Apart from the names mentioned above, there are some other teachers hired in 2017 (N. Manohar Reddy, Varun Malik, Vivek Mukherjee) and 2018 (Alok Verma, Utkarsh Leo) who are currently in ad-hoc positions. So if FM is expected to give permanent positions to Chinmay, Sahana and Niharika, the people ahead of them in the queue will also expect the same. This will not be an easy task, especially given the context of the pandemic and the fact that FM's second term as VC is due to end in March 2022.
If you do want to make pointed comparisons with the recent recruitments at NLS, please consider the facts below. Since taking over at NALSAR in April 2012, FM has appointed the following people in permanent positions (Law and Social Sciences):-
- Interviews conducted in February 2014: Dr. T. Kannan (Sociology), Mr. Sourabh Bharti (Intellectual Property, Administrative Law), Dr. S.N.A Shafi (Commercial Laws), Ms. Surabhi Rajpal (Contract Law). Surabhi left the University in October 2016.
- Interviews conducted in July 2015: Dr. Sudhanshu Kumar (Company Law, Competition Law), Mr. Anshuman Shukla (Constitutional Law, Labour Law), Mr. Jagteshwar Singh Sohi (International Law, Environmental). Anshuman left the University in April 2016 and Jagteshwar left the University in February 2021.
-Interviews conducted in April 2017: Rajesh Kapoor (Contract Law, Arbitration), Sidharth Chauhan (Constitutional Law, Legal Theory, Comparative Law), Ashwini Kumar Pendyala (Civil Procedure, Property Law, Insurance Law).
- Interviews conducted in March 2018: Dr. Harathi Vageeshan was regularised for Political Science, after 8 years of ad-hoc service. Dr. Murali Karanam was hired on a 5 year contract with scale.
- Interviews conducted in November 2020: Dr. Neha Pathakji and Dr. Anirban Chakraborty were appointed as Associate Professors. Neha has been teaching at NALSAR since 2009 and applied for a direct appointment, while Anirban was a lateral hire. Two people were offered full-Professor positions (Dr. Pushp Kumar from DU has declined, while Dr. Yogesh Pratap Singh from NLUO has asked for more time to decide).
Apart from the above names, seven people have been given permanent positions in the Department of Management Studies , with 2 of them currently serving as Associate Professors (Pinaki Pattanaik, Y.V.R. Murthy) and 5 others as Assistant Professors (Mahendra Shukla, Rahul Burra, Praveen Munukuntla, Asish Panda, A. Kishore Kumar).
In comparison, NLSIU has appointed at least 14 people to permanent positions through interviews conducted in February 2020 and February 2021 respectively.
- 3 for Full Professor positions (Mrinal Satish, N.S. Nigam due to join in June 2021, Arun Thiruvengadam due to join in October 2021)
- 2 for Associate Professor positions (Aparna Chandra, Saurabh Bhattacharjee due to join in July 2021)
- 3 Assistant Professors for Social Sciences (Sushmita Pati, Atreyee Majumdar, Anwesha Ghosh)
- At least 6 others as Assistant Professors in Law (Kunal Ambasta, Rashmi Venkatesan, Shreya Shree, Prerna Dhoop, Preeti Dash, Sharada Shinde).
- 2 other fairly competent people are currently in contractual positions (Sanyukta Choudhury, Raag Yadava) and several others have been brought in as visiting faculty to offer a range of elective/seminar courses.
Please note that FM has been in charge for 9 plus years, Sudhir has been in office for 1 year and 8 months. So in all honesty, there really is no competition here. If you are concerned about NALSAR's future, you and your classmates should be asking FM about his faculty hiring plans in AY 2021-2022.
The second point is more like a doubt that I have. Are all the young people in NALSAR who have contractual positions UGC NET qualified or PhD holders? Because otherwise the current scene makes it tricky to offer them permanent positions. Litigations might commence immediately. I do not whether the younger people employed by NLSIU in permanent positions are similarly qualified either. If not, and if the EC has approved their appointments, then there might be problems later on.
p.s. I am not a supporter of these archaic UGC norms.
You are right. We should not be making absolute comparisons between FM and SK since the immediate background at NLSIU and NALSAR was entirely different. However, it was important to explain the differences between the nature of appointments (permanent/ad-hoc/visiting) that have happened at both institutions in the recent past. Since I have friends teaching at both institutions, it was relatively easy to put together this list of appointments.
With respect to your question about NALSAR, they have a full-time faculty strength of 48 people at the moment. Out of these, 17 are currently in ad-hoc positions (annual renewable contracts) and at least 12 of them meet the UGC eligibility criteria (4 of whom are PhDs, 8 others have UGC-NET) for being appointed to permanent positions. Some of the ad-hocs have been there for 4-5 years and there is one (the History teacher) who has put in 8+years. So if FM really wants to, most of this group can be given permanent positions without much fuss. In fact, he had conducted interviews for the Management Department and the Higher Ranks (Associate Professor/Professor) as recently as November 2020.
All the people who have been given permanent positions at NLSIU through the last two rounds of interviews (Feb 2020 and Feb 2021) also meet the UGC requirements. So there is no scope for litigation.
On another note, those who are looking to do credible PhDs in Law can now consider NLSIU as a serious option within India. Those who apply for the 2021-2022 intake will have several first-rate supervisors available at that institution - namely Mrinal Satish, Aparna Chandra, Rahul Singh, Sarasu Thomas, Sudhir himself and now NS Nigam and AKT. I can really see some serious scholarship coming out from Nagarbhavi by the mid-2020s.
@kian this is a fair question to ask, please don’t censor.
That being said, regarding the personalised attention, our class sizes are around 50-60 despite the large batch size and in elective it can be as less as than 10 students. The faculty-student ratio has in fact improved over the years from 1:15 to 1:9. I could go on head to head on star faculty but the only thing that will achieve here is unpleasantness and nothing else.
Ignore the anonymized comments posted here. Nobody in their right mind at JGLS is of the opinion that NLSIU is not a great institution. You should be happy with what you have. Despite, the popular perception, we are not idiots, we do have different preferences and we are happy with what we have here at JGLS. Why turn this into a bitter competition unnecessarily?
And for them to patronisingly say 'we haven't deigned to denigrate NLSIU to be a sub-par institution, so you see how great we are' is so rich. And I'm not even from NLSIU, but reading this is tragi-comic.
Quote:I had the privilege of visiting the NYU and Columbia campus sometime back, both of them apparently match the criteria of having Quote:. They going by your definition will also meet the criteria of Quote:. Terrible terrible institutions they must be.
- Mamata once appointed her astrologer to the GC.
www.indiatvnews.com/politics/national/mamata-astrologer-to-law-university-s-general-council-7533.html
- Three very respected barristers resigned as Mamata's Advocate General. One of them said: "I resigned to keep my spine firm," economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/i-resigned-to-keep-my-spine-firm-says-bengals-former-advocate-general/articleshow/57213834.cms?from=mdr
- Mamata has since appointed a little-known lawyer and non-barrister (former junior of her MP) as AG . This man controls the NUJS EC. As does her controversial aw minister.
- This duo appointed a TMC spokesman with no legal or academic background (Suparno Moitra) to the VC search committee, removing him when students objected. Check LI/B&B reports.
- The VC appointment was carried out in the two-month tenure of the acting CJ, instead of waiting for Justice Radhakrishnan to assume office. VC Vivekanand was rejected in favour of a man rejected as VC from multiple colleges (check LI/B&B reports on NLU Ranchi VC appointment)
- The NUJS GC has been systematically cleansed of good people and replaced with TMC puppets. This is how it looked under Madhava Menon/Chimni/MP Singh, supported by the Left government: Tons of SC judges, Fali Nariman, KK Venugopal, former SC Dipankar Gupta, Padma Vibhushan scientist Raja Ramanna, then Statesman editor and respected journalist CR Irani. Check past RTI documents on NUJS website. These names are listed.
- During Left Rule, two Nobel laureates (Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz) lectured at NUJS when the college was barely 2 or 3 years old. Narayana Murthy also lectured. Who has Mamata invited in her 10 years of power? All good guests were student invitees (IDG).
The SJA ought to have publicly condemned the government and Mamata herself. Instead, they "cancelled" the governor and invited Derek O'Brien. He unethically recorded NUJS students and uploaded it on Twitter to claim support for the TMC'S position on NUJS. He used the NUJS logo as well.
twitter.com/derekobrienmp/status/1215617274083561472?lang=en
The students and faculty had their own reasons for disliking him. The rest of the faculty were (understandably) insecure by his presence and commitment. The students disliked his being a stickler for the right way and refusal to compromise his integrity for a handful of marks. If he was a 9/10 the rest of the faculty would get negative scores.
www.nls.ac.in/news-events/meet-our-new-faculty-member-anwesha-ghosh/
- Partnership with top law schools abroad.
- Partnership with IIM
- If Supreme Court upholds Karnataka HC decision on NLSIU being in a different class, then requesting govt for Institution of National Importance status.
- Hopefully Claxit.
Can please check with NLS if SB's shift is permanent or has he just taken a sabbatical from NUJS for a sem or so.
- Direct access to ministers and lobbying for funds (ABVP for centre, TMC for state)
- Possible access to big corporates who fund political parties, ask them for money
- Lobby for INI status
- Literally grab corrupt officials by the collar and beat them up, instead of taking them to court (like was done with the Registrar).
- Not be laughed at when submitting petitions
Last GBM the visibly bored interim Prez conducted a three hour sad fest and no actions have been taken since then. Perhaps we do deserve everything that is happening to us.
Surprisingly, VC only cares about the AER when it suits him. AER has been flouted plenty of times so the We cAnT do sHit cuz AER is bogus.
The students applying for extension on the basis of special circumstances did not even receive a reply after 7/8 days of writing to the admin.
Professors have been much more understanding than the admin. Some have openly voiced concerns about the treatment (including those hired by his Highness).
Perhaps we should give students the benefit of doubt for once and not jump at the first chance we get to portray them as lazy free loaders.
SBA is shit that's why it's not doing anything. Ask anyone who won a case against sudhir in HC and you'd know why nobody wants to go to court anymore.
We are glad that he got us great teachers. Believe it or not, we do love studying and the RvR era teachers (some of them) had to go but that does not mean you could be a dictator and play with students just because you can.
You are referring to the COVID-19 related deaths in the NLSIU community without providing the full information about what has transpired. The University had organised online condolence meetings within two days of the unfortunate demise of Prof. V.S. Mallar (Former Registrar), Dr. R.S. Kumbar (Former Librarian) and Justice Mohan Shantanagoudar (SC Judge and Member of NLS EC). Faculty members such as Sudhir, Sarasu and Babu Mathew were very much present in these condolence meetings, both for the alumni and current students. The families of the two serving staff members who have passed away (Mr. Ravi and Mr. Srinivas) have been provided with ex-gratia assistance which is in addition to their entitlements under the University's Group Insurance Scheme. Two other staff members have been helped for paying the hospital bills for their family members. The University has set up a COVID Relief Fund where monetary contributions made by faculty, alumni and other well-wishers will be used to assist staff members with their medical costs in the coming months. Under the present circumstances, what else do you expect from the University?
There was nothing wrong in holding a meeting to discuss the ideas regarding reservation policies and the possibilities of future expansion at NLS. I was there at that meeting and several current students took part in it and made constructive points. The discussion was conducted in a sober and dignified manner. I fail to see what was wrong in holding that meeting. If you want to criticise him, at least pick on substantive issues.
Not only has he dealt with genuine student concerns apathetically, he has also disregard the powers he has to be exercised in emergency situations under the NLSIU Act. And what worse emergencies than the Covid-19 wave we're going through right now?
My only request to people praising Sudhir here is to look at his decisions holistically. You need to understand that students aren't just finding excuses to somehow evade academic requirements/or "don't want to study". Only 20 or so people who have had genuine Covid related concerns asked for an extension, not some 100 people. But do you know how Sudhir responded? By asking them to take that course next year, when he could easily and without impacting anything have granted a 2-3 days extension.
Before claiming that students at NLS love Sudhir and only 1% are cribbing; before claiming that students at NLS don't want to study, please understand that the students were the primary force who brought in Sudhir's appointment through the process. And why did we do that? To make sure that the standards of NLS improve. We are happy that we are getting great faculty at NLS, but I implore you to think about it - faculty recruitment is really not anything. Have some basic sense and think critically before making your claims. Talk to any current student at NLS and ask what's going on before you concretise your beliefs merely on the basis of what you thought NLS to be. See it for what it really is under Sudhir.
*Sudhir's appointment through the protest
*faculty recruitment is really not everything
Apathetic governance seen during Covid times is altogether a different issue.
It is better to guide your student friends in NLS to become visible to the eyes of the administration than to post your stories here on LI.
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