The student juridical association (SJA) has obtained a copy from vice-chancellor (VC) Prof Ishwara Bhat of the 56-page long-buried and long-overdue report by the statutory review commission.
Bhat, who has controversially been set to join CNLU Patna as VC, provided the document dated 30 October 2017 to NUJS students today.
The students also procured a copy of Bhat’s 21 December 2017 letter to the NUJS chancellor, responding to the 34 proposals floated in the report.
The report had not been seen until today by NUJS students and faculty members, with Bhat having sat on the only available copy. In 2014, Bhat had also suppressed a critical Bar Council of India (BCI) fact-finding report on NUJS for 9 months.
According to the NUJS SJA president Arjun Aggarwal and vice-president Samarth Sharma, today the controversial “CCTVs in classrooms were shut immediately based on an adverse observation by the Review Commission”.
Below the full email the SJA circulated internally.
Story developing, to be updated.
Dear all
Over the past two days there has been an overwhelming concern in the General Body regarding informational asymmetry. We humbly accede and believe that we should start bridging the same from this moment itself. This is, however, only a small first step towards informing the General Body about the relevant context and merely reflects the tip of the iceberg.
Review Commission
In a General Body meeting held on January 15, 2014, the Student Juridical Association exposed a large scale financial scam in the University. In this meeting, the Vice Chancellor had promised us, among many other things, to make sure that a Review Commission will be constituted at the earliest. The same is reflected in a resolution signed by over 400 students that day.
On February 2, 2014, the then office-bearers wrote to the then CJI Justice (Retd.) P. Sathasivam requesting the formation of the University Review Commission which was already overdue 9 years then. Nothing progressed for the next two and a half years.
In our General Body meeting held on September 21, 2016, the Vice Chancellor had responded to query in this regard by claiming that he has been trying his best for two years and blamed the delay on frequent changes in the CJI office and State Government elections. Both the minutes of that meeting and video recording, if any, establishes the same. When further inquired about the evidence of correspondence with these offices, he promised to search and get back. Quite unsurprisingly, the Vice Chancellor has not complied with the same to this day.
Based on this and other responses in that meeting, we expressed our loss of faith in the leadership of the Vice Chancellor through our resolution dated September 23, 2016. Our demand before the Executive Council meeting held on the next day where they considered the Vice Chancellor’s extension and granted the same was simple: an extension should not be granted without redressal of our long standing demands concerning, among other things:
- lack of transparency regarding meetings of University bodies such as General Council, Executive Council, Academic Council, Finance Committee, et al.;
- complete undermining of the students’ right to democratically participate in the administration of this University;
- non-responsiveness to RTIs for many years;
- the worst student-faculty ratio in top 5 National Law Schools (1:22) despite highest fee and most students;
- stalling of academic reforms agreed upon over two years back;
- falling research and academic standards;
- zero research output;
- complete inaction on financial embezzlement despite recommendations by Justice (Retd.) PN Sinha’s report to institute a full CID inquiry to investigate the matter thoroughly and hold accountable officers who continue to serve in the University to this day; and
- zero involvement of students in activities of various research centres in the University.
Needless to say, all these issues still remain unresolved.
Subsequently, we gave a physical representation to the Executive Council and met with Chancellor, then CJI Justice (Retd.) TS Thakur, during the 2016 Convocation. The Executive Council agreed that our concerns were serious and must be looked into by a Review Commission. As a result, Justice Thakur constituted the Review Commission on December 24, 2016.
Due to some unconvincing procedural irregularities, it was only in September 2017 that the first ever University Review Commission visited NUJS. On October 30, 2017, the report was submitted to the present CJI, Justice Dipak Misra. He sought responses of the Vice Chancellor vide a letter dated November 29, 2017.
When we (along with many members of the SJA Executive Committee) approached the Vice Chancellor for the report this evening, he told us he has not caused any delay in making the report available to the students and that Justice Misra has instructed him to place it before the Executive Council. When we inquired about any legal or moral justification for the delay, the Vice Chancellor claimed that the report was first made available to him only in the first week of February. On being unable to justify the non-publication of report for another hour, the Vice Chancellor finally agreed to provide us with a copy. Subsequently, he claimed that he received the report in the second week of December.
Unsurprisingly, when we finally got his response to Justice Misra, we realized that the Vice Chancellor has been denying this report to us without any justification for months, if not years.
Unlike the Vice Chancellor, however, we firmly believe that this report is the right of every past and present member of the Student Juridical Association. We have attached the full report and the VC’s response to some recommendations.
Way Forward
The power of student collectivization has been reaffirmed by the sequence of events today. So has the power of this report. CCTVs in classrooms were shut immediately based on an adverse observation by the Review Commission. There are many more systematic and institutional flaws that plague our University.
As of today, the student body faces tougher challenges than most of our recent predecessors. We, as the General Body, can choose to ignore this reality, be satisfied with an oversimplistic conception of NUJS brand image, collect peanuts that the VC throws at us while letting things get worse. Illustratively, following the on-going second faculty exodus, the availability of faculty has a hit an all-time low. All this is despite a 2013 BCI fact-finding committee’s recommendation for hiring 19 new faculty members and SJA petitions to Executive Council and Academic Council dating back to 2013. We have petitioned the Academic Council, Executive Council and CJIs multiple times since. The report suggests that we should hire at least 55 new faculty members (paragraph 94). The current strength is under 30. If this University fails to even provide us with a decent education, we fail to see what will be left of the NUJS brand in the near future.
At this moment, we seek inspiration from our General Body to determine the future course of action. After five years of focused attention on the most important issues, we stand here today, unable to fix accountability on anyone for this abysmal state of affairs. We look forward to engaging with you, preferably in a General Body meeting, after all of you have gone through this report.
Immensely proud and hopeful
Arjun Agarwal (President)
Samarth Sharma (Vice-President)
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The only thing some students cannot digest is that the VC comes from a humble background and does not understand the sophisticated, elitist and entitled mindset of these students. There should be an inquiry by CID on who is instigating these protests.
The following are clear points that implicate Bhat:
1. The report mentions the decline in teaching and research quality. Bhat is 100% liable as good faculty left during his tenure.
2. It mentions that NRI seats are "sold" to weak students and the normal fees is also higher than NSLIU and NALSAR. This is permissible only if the extra money gives NUJS better faculty and infra, but the report clearly notes that this has not happened. Bhat 100% liable.
3. The report mentions that the committee was deeply concerned about the no-confidence petition and quotes from the petition. Again, a huge slap to Bhat.
4. The report mentions an alarming drop in girl students, but this is because of the hostel situation. Bhat 100% liable.
5. Very few foreign university collaborations. Once again, Bhat liable.
6. Other damning observations implicating Bhat: positions vacant for a long time, student from an influential family let off for misconduct, sexual harassment poorly handled, decline in management and administration, security guards harassing student, poor hygiene and sanitation, faculty and students have "lost faith" in the administration, fear to speak out, lack of transparency, faculty meetings not held.
Next steps:
1. The SJA office bearers (especially the ones in the past) should hang their head in shame for allowing this to continue for so many years. When all NLU students with bad VCs have hounded them out (most recently NLIU Bhopal) the SJA just opted for bureaucratic measures like petitions.
2. Whether the SJA endorses it or not, student must now pass a resolution impeaching Bhat and demand that he not enter the campus premises after 30 April, and not attend any future event at NUJS. No two ways about it. Use there term IMPEACH, set a deadline for him to leave campus and blacklist him from future events. Acknowledge your legal inability to impeach, but assert your moral ability to pass an impeachment motion impeaching Bhat. Already, a protest page has been set up on Facebook by students and alumni, so the SJA must decide whose side it is on.
3. There was a cynical campaign to praise Bhat on LI, in the hope that CNLU students would accept him. This is very selfish behaviour. Why should CNLU suffer? The impeachment motion must also recognise that he cannot go to CNLU and ruin another NLU. The impeachment motion should offer support to CNLU students in their protest not to have him. How ****ing hard is to just have one sentence offering CNLU support? They have been protesting 24x7 in the hot sun.
4. Many former teachers who wish NUJS well were forced to join other universities because of Bhat's dictatorship. Also, there are many star alumni teaching elsewhere in India and abroad, including gold medalists from previous batches, people who have published in top journals and won many accolades. Some of these people are from Kolkata or eastern India, and have gone on record saying that they would have joined NUJS had it not been for Bhat. The SJA must now reach out to these people and ask them to give some guest lectures, especially in commercially relevant areas (general corporate, M&A, tax, arbitration, IP, real estate, energy etc).
5. The Mysore Mafia must be boycotted by the students.
We are putting you on notice. Either you stage a protest and demand Bhat's resignation and debarment from holding any NLU VC post, or we will do it ourselves as a breakaway student faction. A Facebook page has already been set up and a resolution has been drafted. We are also in touch with CNLU. The students there have been very hurt by the lack of solidarity shown to them, and the plan by certain students to praise Bhat in LI comments so that CNLU students drop their resistance.
Let me also urge people not to co-operate with Bar & Bench and Lawctopus for their complicity through silence. No doubt they will now do a volte face. If you want to leak information do it on Legally India or Live Law, or on Facebook/Twitter. Do not increase website traffic for Bar & Bench and Lawctopus.
1) It seems from the outside as though the SJA seems to eventually be getting the job done that they have been elected for. They eventually got a copy of the report, their no confidence motions inspired protests at CNLU and probably contributed to Bhat leaving.
2) I don't think Lawctopus usually really covers law school news, as such, so not really fair to blame or boycott them for not covering this story.
#ThankYouProfGopal #ThankYouProfMustafa #ThankYouKian
@narendramodi @PMOIndia @rsprasad @OfficeOfRSP @ppchaudharyMoS @OfficeofPPC @arunjaitley @FinMinIndia @PrakashJavdekar @HRDMinistry @RahulGandhi @KapilSibal @DrAMSinghvi @salman7khurshid
Link:
wetransfer.com/downloads/1dc88e5a6dad11126c947ba41953782a20180325114358/6cc2f7
www.documentcloud.org/documents/4420989-Summary-of-NUJS-report.html
Multidisciplinary:
- Sudhir Krishnaswamy (Azim Premji): constitution, admin law, legal theory
- Shamnad Basheer: IP, admin law, jurisprudence, legal theory
- Saptarshi Bandapadhay (Osgoode Hall): environment, human rights, technology law
- Manoj Sinha (ILI): constitution, international law, human rights
- Daniel Mathew (NLUD): commercial arbitration, human rights
- MV Shiju (TERI): environment, labour, public law, constitution
Company Law:
- Navajoti Samanta (Sheffield)
- Nimika Jha (Jindal)
Pol Science:
- Rudranshu Mukherji (Ashoka)
Constitution:
- Mayank Misra (Princeton)
- Shubhankar Dam (Portsmouth)
- Pritam Baruah (NALSAR)
Criminal Law:
- Anupama Sharma (Jindal)
Contract I:
- Supriya Routh (Victoria, Canada)
Trade and investment:
- Prabhash Ranjan (SAU)
- Souvik Chaterjee (NLUJ)
Energy Law:
- Ram Mohan (IIM Ahmedabad)
Family law, gender:
- Saptarshi Mandal (Jindal)
- Kavana Ramaswamy (Jindal)
IP:
- Arpan Bannerjee (Jindal)
- Vishwas Devaiah (NLUD)
Cyber law:
- Chinmayi Arun (NLUD)
So it's fairly obvious who you meant Very sad. This means you do not want people who are well qualified, but people who will be lenient, give high marks etc. No wonder the college is in such a state. I'm told the likes of AKP are considered "good" teachers these days.
The idea to engage or invite them as visiting faculty shouldnt a agenda as regular faculty recruitment should be done first.
The two main recommendations of the report are better faculty and better infra. In reality, the students only want the second, not the first. If NUJS really gets good faculty, the students will have to give up these "perks".These students mention Madhava Menon's legacy without ever having met the man. If a strict taskmaster like him was around, the students would have got screwed big time.
So please take what the students say with a pinch of salt. It is not without reason that they allowed this man to continue for all these years.
1. It's the NUJS student body which has got the report. This means the student body is active and concerned. And when that's in place, the institution will thrive.
2. The report mentions how NUJS as an institution is class apart. It's done great, can do greater.
docs.google.com/file/d/0B4XaA30casoDaWlRWXl3ak90QWs/edit
sja.nujs.edu/newsroom/2018/03/25/notice-because-you-never-did
We would like LI to cover this. @Kian
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/national-law-university-jodhpur-admission-2018-25-seats-to-be-reserved-for-rajasthan-domicile-students/articleshow/63186655.cms
25% reservation has been approved.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/national-law-university-jodhpur-admission-2018-25-seats-to-be-reserved-for-rajasthan-domicile-students/articleshow/63186655.cms
But one thing I would want to have a discussion about with people in the student body is with regard to what happens if Bhat is no longer there? I know you will come back with something along the lines of "bro, NUJS will be great again!". And I understand why you might feel that way, you might feel that changing the person at the helm would be a good start to making changes.
However, when people go out and demonize one single person for the ills of an entire institution, I feel there is one thing which needs to come into the discussion. Which is that no matter what kind of personnel you have in administration, you are always going to have problems. Human society is complex and no one person can do things at his whims and fancies. If you look at any administration, whether it be that of an educational institution, or that of a country like America under Obama or India under Manmohan Singh, people are going to have grievances against that administration. Indeed, even people within NUJS have grievances against their own student body for various reasons. It's impossible for any administration to create a perfect world because that kind of world does not exist.
I know that the NUJS student body is full of dynamic, intelligent, and socially motivated students. I would request them to pause and think for once if Bhat should be talked about as a villain that he is mercilessly portrayed as.
I know that students are often prone to making ad hominem comments against people they don't agree with. It's understandable given their youthful vigor and desire to make other people agree with them. But I would request them to restrain from that in this thread if possible because a civil discussion is always more enjoyable.
"I know you will come back with something along the lines of "bro, NUJS will be great again!" - such a presumptuous and snooty conclusion!
"However, when people go out and demonize one single person for the ills of an entire institution..." - says who? We hold several other people, including several faculty members and other people in admin, responsible too for the decline. Won't even deny that at least a part of us students may also bear responsibility for some of it. But here's the thing. When things start failing, the leadership has to assume responsibility first and either improve things or get out of the way. Bhat isn't going to improve anything. He has nothing positive to contribute towards NUJS at this stage (if he ever had any). Now why should we have to bear his burden for next 3 years? Next person may not be a messiah, but to know that for sure, we need to have this guy removed to HAVE a next person first! We are not asking for perfect world, at this stage, we may even settle for things to go back to the state the university was in when this guy took over! We still had problems back then, I'm sure. But you didn't see the students coming out in such level of protests. You know why? Because the admin convinced them that they were at least trying to solve those issues. That's what a working relationship is. From someone who keeps lying bare-faced to students regularly, it's futile to expect such assurances, let alone the action. That's why we want him out of here. Who says we are going to stop there? It's not as if we want a custom-made VC. Ranvir Singh had his own flaws, I'm sure. But he did manage to create a fairly balanced and promising structure at NLUD, a relatively new law school. So did the previous VCs at NUJS. Is it really too much to expect a VC who will think about institutional and student welfare, given the fees we are paying?
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