Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, Member of Parliament during the question hour of Loksabha on 24.07/2019 asked the Hon’ble Minister of Law & Justice Shri, Ravishankar Prasad that:

(a) whether the Government proposes to nationalize the National Law Universities (NLUs) and providing them the same status as accorded to other National Institutes and if so, the details thereof;

(b) whether the Government is planning to undertake measures to provide adequate complaint mechanism in NLUs keeping in mind the constant strikes and protests therein and if so, the details thereof along with the
complaints/protests during the last two years; and

(c) whether the Government is proposing to provide uniform academic standards and centralized funding to reckon with the problems in the NLUs and if so, the details thereof?

To which the minister responded that:

“There is no proposal before the government to nationalize National Law Universities. The management of NLUs is done by them and the academic curriculum and standards is decided by them in consultation with the Bar Council of India.”

All NLUs without exception are state universities. Established by statutes enacted by various state legislatures, the adjective ‘national’ only describes the initial idea that facilitated their creation. For instance, the National Law School of India University was set up by a 1986 Karnataka Act and NALSAR University of Law by an Andhra Pradesh Act of 1998. As a result,  these law schools rely majorly on grants from state governments – as against other institutions of excellence, such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), which are funded by the Centre. Grants from different states being greatly non-uniform, the fees charged by most of the law schools is usually very high and can go up to about Rs 2 lakhs per annum, inclusive of tuition and other fees (such as hostel rent and mess charges). 

NLUs today are inefficiently administrated institutions that fail to provide basic facilities such as decent faculty, proper classrooms, proper residential areas, a functional library, hygienic environment and other such necessities due to which almost NLU’s student have to protest against their management for basic facilities which result in loss of academic sessions. In absence of uniform academic standards and centralized funding, the disparity within different NLUs themselves is a problem to be reckoned with. Centralization in administration through nationalization of these institutions is the only long-term solution to this problem.

Failure to do so might disrupt entirely the next generation of social-engineers that the National Law School Project was destined to create when it was set up three decades back by Prof. Madhav Menon.

A private member’s Bill i.e, THE NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITIES OF INDIA BILL, 2016 to nationalise legal education was introduced in the Lok Sabha by Prof. (Dr.) Sugata Bose in March earlier this year for Declaration of the NLUs as ‘Institutes of National Importance’ which further makes the Parliament competent to legislate on the subject. Reservation of seats for state domicile students to be decided by state order to be maximum of 50% of the seats. Formation of a new National Council to harmonize working of the NLUs, advise on matters of the common admission test, resolve inter-NLU disputes, examine annual budget sessions and recommend to the Central Government allotment of funds. The Union Minister of Law is the Chairperson ex-officio. This does not infringe in any way on the power of the Bar Council of India to regulate legal education and it only to ensure proper functioning of the NLUs, not to decide on policy matters of legal education throughout the country or prescribe standards thereof.

But the revert that comes from Law Minister implies that government doesn’t want to interfere in the management of NLUs.

With inputs from The Statesman & The Wire