NLSIU at Loggerheads with Government on Local Quota Bill

The National Law School of India University, Bengaluru or NLSIU is at the loggerheads with the state government over the decision of reserving 25% seats for the domicile students. The university is trying to work out a deal with the government. The government had put forth a National Law School of India (Amendment) Bill on February 18, 2020, seeking to reserve 25% of the total seats for students who have studied for ten years in the state. The bill will be presented in the Assembly for discussion on March 22, 2020.

The law school has opposed the quote rule tabled by the government. It claims that the seats can be reserved for the local government only after the institute expands. The National Law School of India University hopes that the government will nod to the reasoning and will end up dropping the bill.
The Chief Justice of India, S A Bobde, will attend the NLSIU, Bengaluru executive council meeting on February 28, 2020. The matter is expected to be discussed in the meeting. A senior officer from the administration of NLS (National Law School) claims that the future of the NLS will be discussed by the executive council which mainly includes the expansion plan of the law school.

Each year NLSIU offers admission to 80 students to its flagship UG programme. Students are admitted to the university on the basis of CLAT (Common Law Admission Test).

The official said that the intake of the law school has been 80 since 1988. The university is unable to expand due to the capex problem. He further adds that the institute is planning to increase the intake to 120 in the academic session 2020-21, 180 in 2021-22 and 2022-23. For implementing this thought the university requires help from the government.

In the bill presented, the government has cited the instances of the 8 universities that provide local quota to the students. The eight universities named in the bills comprise National Law School University, Bhopal, Rajiv Gandhi National University, Punjab, National Law University and Judicial Academy, Assam, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University, Lucknow, Damodaram Sanjivayya National Law University, Visakhapatnam, Tamil Nadu National Law School, National Academy of Legal Studies and Research University, Hyderabad, and Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur.

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NLSIU official countered the statement of the bill by stating that unlike NLSIU, Bengaluru the eight universities had already received considerable monetary aid. As per the official, the institutes have received a minimum of Rs. 350 crore from their respective state governments but NLSIU, Bengaluru has just received Rs. 16.32 crore in the last 32 years from the government of the state.

Sudhir Krishnaswamy, the Vice-Chancellor of NLSIU, said that a constructive consultation with all stakeholders is needed to help keep the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru at the position of the number one law school.

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NLSIU, Bengaluru was established in the year 1986. The university is one of the leading law universities of the nation. The Chief Justice of India is the Vice-Chancellor of the university. The university accepts the CLAT score to offer admission to the students to the law courses.