legal education

Thanks to a dear reader, who has pointed out some interesting titbits in a recent online video interview of NLSIU Bangalore vice-chancellor (VC) Prof Sudhir Krishnaswamy, talking (a little bit) about the recent blockbuster faculty recruitments, a criticism of wider Indian legal academia and plans for NLS to become a pioneer in online legal education.

Indian law schools have been trying - and in some cases struggling - to convert tuition to online learning courses in the wake of most having shut down physical tuition to attempt to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19).

If you have any updates about your law school’s response to the novel coronavirus, please share these in the comments.

Two Indian law schools, NLSIU Bangalore and JGLS Sonepat, have for the first time found a place on the global QS World University Rankings by subject, law in the 100 to 200 ranks out of 894 law schools globally.

Still flying high after his barnstorming speech on Sunday at the NLSIU Bangalore convocation, Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Manan Kumar Mishra has stood up for the noble profession yet again and hit back at the government, which has floated an oft-attempted but never-achieved proposal that would drastically shake up legal education in the country.

NLSIU Bangalore’s Student Bar Association (SBA) has taken the offensive over the (possibly) inexplicable delays in the appointment of Prof Sudhir Krishnaswamy as its new vice chancellor (VC), with students wearing black bands today.

The government has approved several of the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) recommendation to make institutions with law schools Institutions of Eminence (IOE), which, apart from bragging rights, would carry with it a significant amount of funding in case of public universities, and more autonomy in case of private institutions.

According to a CNN News 18 sting operation just aired, undergraduate law degrees (amongst other subject) are available for sale by agents for the princely sum of Rs 2.1 lakh (even less than the recently revised Rs 2.3 lakh fee NLSIU Bangalore students have to pay for a single year of study).

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has in a press release said it would not approve any more law schools for three years, after the number of schools had ballooned to 1,500, meaning it had approved around 25% additional law colleges since five years ago.

Nigam Nuggehalli, a 1997 NLSIU Bangalore graduate and former visiting professor there, has been appointed as dean of the new BML Munjal University law school.

NLSIU Bangalore’s Student Bar Association (SBA) has released a statement to express its wishes in the ongoing vice chancellor (VC) selection process.

The government has released a draft policy to improve education in India; also buried within its 484 pages are recommendations to improve legal education in the country by ensuring it “reflect[s] social-cultural contexts” and “fall[s] back upon the culture and traditions of people, the history of legal institutions and victory of ‘Dharma’ over ‘Adharma’ writ large in Indian literature and mythology”.

By July of last year, NUJS Kolkata’s interim administration had unilaterally shut down its distance learning certificate courses contractually provided by all third parties.

The Bar Council of India’s (BCI) legal education committee has sent a circular to national law university (NLU) vice chancellors (VCs) on 10 March 2019, recommending that NLUs do more to improve legal ethics in budding professionals.

The Consortium of National Law Universities’ executive committee (EC), set up in 2014, has decided to lobby the BCI to allow full-time law teachers to also practise law.

The Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, as NUJS Kolkata’s chancellor, via his nominee has directed the stagnated appointment process of a permanent vice chancellor (VC) to be completed by 28 February 2019, with all other senior administrative appointments, such as registrar and accounts officer, to be appointed by 31 March.

Prof Ishwara Bhat has joined the Karnataka State Law University as vice chancellor, after having resigned as VC from NUJS Kolkata under student pressure in April.

A total of nine students from non-traditional backgrounds supported by the Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access (IDIA) initiative have made it to national law schools.