NLSIU releases provisional admission list amid allegations of injustice; 60 Karnataka students across categories

Earlier, Karnataka Law Minister J C Madhuswamy wrote to the vice-chancellor of NLSIU complaining that the “university has compartmentalised the reservation and provided a quantity of 25% including those who have been selected under the All India Rank”. He highlighted that “NLSIU is grouping even meritorious students who are supposed to be under general category along with domicile reserved students”.

However, as per the provisional list, 19 students of Karnataka domicile have been selected for the undergraduate programme under the general category. This includes students with ranks 12, 23, 27 and 32.

In fact, on Saturday, a group of pro-Kannada activists and lawyers’ association is set to stage a protest at NLSIU opposing the alleged “exclusion of Karnataka students” under their reservation policy. Karnataka Higher Education Minister C N Ashwath Narayan had also written to the university alleging that the institution was not complying with domicile reservation under section 4 of the NLSIU Amendment Act.

In 2020, Karnataka High Court, in its decision dated September 29, 2020, struck down the validity of the National Law School (Amendment) Act, 2020 passed by the state government in April 2020. The court had stated that the state legislature has no power or authority under the Act to direct the respondent/Law School to provide reservations for students in view of the limited role of the state under the Act. Currently, the validation of the Amendment Act is sub judice in the Supreme Court of India.