Law school eludes students; guv yet to clear quota bill

Students from Karnataka have lost out on a piece of NLSIU pie this year too.

The NLSIU (Amendment) Bill 2017 — which reserves 50% of seats at the National Law School of India University for state students — is yet to be implemented.

As per information available from NLSIU Bengaluru, the admissions for 2019-20 are over and classes have also resumed. Of the total 80 students admitted to the prestigious varsity, only three are from Karnataka. If the amendments were implemented, this number would have reached 40.

“For both undergraduate and postgraduate courses, we fill seats through the Centralised Admission through Common Law Admission Test (CLAT). The admissions are over. As we did not receive any communication from the government about the implementation of amendments to the NLSIU bill, we had to follow existing admission guidelines,” said a senior official of NLSIU Bengaluru.

“Once the CLAT results are out, the candidates can select the law university of their preference. As there was no communication to students and also to the university which had conducted CLAT this year about the amendments or reservation, the admission process has been completed,” explained the official.

The amendments to the National Law School of India Act, 1986, were brought by the state in the Legislative Assembly in 2017 and sent for the Governor’s approval, which is still pending. The then higher education minister Basavaraj Rayaraddi had moved the bill and according to information available from the state higher education department, the file still pending before the Governor.

Reservation in other states

Telangana (20%), Madhya Pradesh (25%), West Bengal (7.5%), Rajasthan (40%), Gujarat (25%), Uttar Pradesh (50%), and Tamil Nadu (50%)

Who is eligible?

A student or a student whose parents are residing in the state for a period of not less than 10 years preceding the qualifying examination will be considered as a resident of Karnataka. It also creates provision for a student, who has studied in any of the recognised educational institutions in the State for a period of not less than seven years.

Why no quota in Karnataka?

A P Ranganath, President The Advocates' Association Bengaluru, said, "It's been two years and the bill is still with the Governor. We had even submitted a representation to then chief minister H D Kumaraswamy to take measures to implement the bill. But admissions for 2019-20 academic year are over without the implementation of the bill. All the other states in the country provide reservation for their students. When we have given land and other infrastructure, why not reservation for our students?"