Quota in NLSIU: govt sends bill to A-G for legal opinion

The contentious bill to reserve 50% of the seats in the premier National Law School of India University (NLSIU) in Bengaluru to students from Karnataka, has been referred to the advocate general for a legal opinion, Law Minister T B Jayachandra said on Monday.

In June, the National Law School of India (Amendment) Bill, 2017 was passed in both the Houses of the state legislature- where the ruling Congress accepted the BJP’s demand to increase reservation for Karnataka students from 30% to 50%. The bill was sent to the Governor.

“The Governor sent the bill back asking us to get a legal opinion on whether there is a provision under the Constitution to provide reservation,” Jayachandra told DH. Accordingly, the bill has been referred to Advocate General Madhusudhan R Naik. “We are yet to get an opinion,” he added.

The bill defines ‘domicile’ as a student whose either parent has resided in Karnataka for at least seven years. Higher Education Minister Basavaraj Rayareddy has contended that only eight students from Karnataka got admission into NLSIU last year. The government is working on a similar proposal to reserve 25% of the seats in the IIT-Dharwad.

The NLSIU Student Bar Association termed the reservation “a sudden and shocking move.” It stated “the extraordinary measure of introducing 50% domicile reservations will surely strike a blow to the countless number of meritorious aspirants who wish to be a part of the university.”