Hidayatullah National Law University
Hidayatullah National Law University (HNLU) is a public law school and a National Law University in New Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India. The University is named after the former Chief Justice of India, Justice Mohammad Hidayatullah. It is one of the autonomous law schools in India and being sixth in the series of such national law schools. It was established as a centre for legal excellence by the Government of Chhattisgarh under the Hidayatullah National University of Law, Chhattisgarh, Act (Act No.10 of 2003). The university offers a B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) integrated Programme, an L.L.M. Programme, and PhD  Course. It is a residential university and is affiliated to and receives central assistance from the University Grants Commission and is recognised by the Bar Council of India. Campus. Old campus. Previously, the university ran from a classical heritage building adjacent to the Raj Bhawan in the heart of the city. In 2009, the university shifted to its newly constructed campus at Uparwara, Naya Raipur, about 22 km from the center of Raipur city. New campus. The new campus is built over of land located beside a lake and in a serene and pollution free environment. The circular academic and  administrative building has been built on the design of the Parliament of India. The academic block consists of a three-storied library with an air conditioned reading hall and an air-conditioned computer lab equipped with 200 computers. The academic block also houses the Moot Court Halls designed to match the standards of the Supreme Court of India and the High Courts. The campus is Wi-Fi enabled. There are 21 air-conditioned classrooms fitted with modern teaching aids and equipment. The air-conditioned classrooms are fitted with teaching aids such as DLP projectors and no single interactive boards. It  also has a conference hall and an amphitheatre. The halls of residence at the new campus have been constructed to provide single room accommodation to each student. However, the later construction of the new hostels for both girls and boys are double occupancy. Infrastructure. Hostels. HNLU provides separate hostels for girls and boys. Each hostel has two blocks which are connected to the mess. There are over 400 single occupancy rooms and under construction 216 double occupancy rooms. The hostels are equipped with separate mess and gymnasium facilities with a resident doctor. Library and reading room. HNLU has a three -storied library with an air conditioned reading hall. , the library collection includes 22,788 titles: 15,040 books and 7,748 bound journals. The library hosts 1219 books from the personal library of justice Mohammad Hidayatullah, donated by his family. IT infrastructure. HNLU has an air conditioned computer lab with desktop computers with internet connectivity. All the legal databases are available through CD-ROMs and subscription to web based databases like JSTOR, Manupatra and Westlaw International, SCC Online, and Economic and Political Weekly. A Wi-Fi facility provides the students with wire-free access to the web resources through their laptops. The Information  Technology Committee, a student body, maintains the Computer Lab. New academic block and guest house. In 2013 the university began construction on a second academic block adjacent to the original one, with classrooms built to accommodate the additional students, after intake was increased from 100 to 175. A guest house has been built where parents of students and guests are accommodated. The lake facing guest house has air-conditioned rooms which are available at a nominal fee on application to the registrar. New hostel block and auditorium. Construction began in 2014 for the new hostel blocks for both the boys ' and girls' hostels. The new hostels are twin-sharing contrary to the old single rooms. The Chhattisgarh Government also allotted a major budget in 2014 for the construction of a state-of-the-art auditorium. Administration. Heading the administration of the university are: Academics. Admission. Admissions to Undergraduate and postgraduate courses is made on the basis of merit as assessed through Common Law Admission Test (CLAT). Prior to 2008, admissions were conducted through National Entrance Tests which was replaced by CLAT as per the Supreme Court of India's directives. Admissions to the PhD Programme is conducted separately by the  University. Students belonging to the state domicile Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Class, and PWD and minorities are provided with scholarships by the state government. Common Law Admission Test. HNLU conducted the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) in 2013. CLAT is conducted for admission into various academic programmes (LLB and LLM) of the 22 National Law Universities (NLUs) in India. The 2013 edition of CLAT saw 29,500 test takers. Initially HNLU rejected 1,317 out of 29,500 application forms that were "incomplete or filled improperly", but on 23 April notified on its website that "on the basis of  requests made by applicants and their parents" it would allow rejected applicants to apply again on a "provisional basis". Courses and curriculum. HNLU currently offers following courses: Undergraduate. The university follows a semester system in its undergraduate program, with the students studying a total of 56 papers in 5 years. The university earlier had a system of students declaring a major (Political Science, Sociology or Economics), but currently it offers a single major, Political Science. In the 4th and 5th year, students have to choose two honors papers. All students are also required to study six optional papers during their  4th and 5th year. Postgraduate. The university offers a one-year LL.M Program which runs according to a trimester system. The specialisations offered are corporate law, intellectual property law and environmental law. Publications. "HNLU Student Bar Journal" is the flagship peer review journal of the Students Bar Association of HNLU. In 2014 the university started the "HNLU Journal of Law & Social Sciences" (ISSN No. 2347-839X), a multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal with an editorial board of experts on law as well as the field of social sciences. This bi-annual journal is being published with the objective to provide a  platform to judges, jurists, academicians, research scholars and legal practitioners to express their views on topics of contemporary significance in law and social sciences. Rankings. Hidayatullah National Law University was ranked 12 in India by "Outlook India"s "India's Top 30 Law Colleges in 2019" and 10 in India by "The Week"s "Top Law Colleges 2019". Academic achievements. The students of the university have won various awards and accolades. In 2012 the Supreme Court Lawyers Welfare Trust, awarded its first annual fellowship, named "The Lawyers Welfare Award" to HNLU alumnus Pallav Mongia. An alumnus of the 2012 graduating batch, Saksham  Chaturvedi won the ABA Section of International Law's Rona R. Mears Student Writing Competition and Scholarship Award, 2011 for his essay on "The Geneva Conventions: What Past? What futures?" and was awarded the prize in an event hosted by the American Bar Association in Washington Student life. Student Bar Association. The Student Bar Association at HNLU is the representative body of the students. The Association comprises fourteen students who are the conveners of the twelve committees of the University. A president and a vice-president are elected from amongst these fourteen members. The members and officers of the Association  hold office for a year. The Association makes all decisions affecting the students and makes recommendations to the Vice-Chancellor. The Association coordinates and supervises the activities of all the committees at the University. The HNLU Students Bar Association consists of fourteen committees: Moot Court Co-ordination Committee, Academic Support Committee, Finance Committee, Legal Service Society, Literary and Debate Society, Library Committee, I.T. Committee, Public Relations Committee, Disciplinary Committee, Mess Committee, Halls of Residence Committee, Cultural Committee, Students Editorial Board and Sports Committee. Each has a convener and co-convener, and at least two faculty advisers. The President and Vice  President of the Student Bar Council are elected by popular vote. International Law Students Association. The HNLU ILSA Chapter was established on 11 October 2010, with Aakansha Kumar as its Chief Officer and Shilpa Jain and Neeraj Tiwari as Faculty Advisers. Through the years the Chapter has tried to forward the study on International Law in HNLU through various initiatives, including a two-day Lecture Series by Prof. David Ambrose from the University of Madras and the HNLU-ILSA Refugee Conference. Moot courts. To familiarise students with the workings of courts, the university conducts courtroom exercises and moot courts. Courtroom  exercises are conducted in every semester. Students are encouraged to participate in moot court competitions so that they get the chance to interact with other law students from all over the country. The Moot Court Committee is the facilitator of the moot court. The committee is guided by the faculty coordinator and three faculty advisers. Justice Hidayatullah Memorial National Moot Court competition. HNLU organises its flagship moot the Justice Hidayatullah Memorial National Moot Court Competition every year in October, in which teams from across the country participate. The Moot sees participation from across the country, with the Judges of the  Chhattisgarh High Court officiating over the finals. The competition has been previously sponsored by the Competition Commission of India and renowned law firms such as Khaitan & Co., J. Sagar & Associates, and Sai Krishna & Associates. The 1st Edition of the Moot in 2007 was based on Biotechnology Law, the subsequent editions being based on Competition law (in association with the Competition Commission of India). The 7th edition of the Competition in 2014 saw the theme being changed from to Environmental law. HNMCC is listed as a tier 5 Moot in the Mooting Premier League. Achievements. HNLU has represented India in some  of the International Moot Court Competitions like the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition; International Maritime Moot Court Competition, Sydney, the LAWASIA Moot, the Inter-American Human Rights Moot Court Competition at the Washington College of Law, the FDI Moot, Louis M. Brown Client Counseling Competition, Susan J. Ferrell Intercultural Human Rights Moot Court Competition held at St. Thomas University - School of Law, Miami, and the Philip C. Jessup Moot Court Competition. International National Events. Colossus. Colossus is the flagship sports fest of HNLU which is organised in March every year. The fest was first organised in 2013 and  comprises 15 sports events and an equal number of cultural events. The sports events include football, cricket, tennis, table tennis, basketball, throw-ball, volleyball, and chess. The cultural events include a dance contest, singing competitions, fashion show, photography competition, and Mad-ads. The fest initially began with participation from local universities and colleges in Chhattisgarh such as NIT Raipur, BIT Raipur, MATS University, PIE Tech Raipur, APIC, and CIT. The second edition in 2014 saw additions like classical dance, solo singing and street plays. Participants included Sastra University, Thanjavur, National Law Institute University, Bhopal, University Law College, Bhubaneshwar and Gujarat  National Law University, Gandhinagar. Literary and debating. The university has an active debating circuit which is supported by the Literary & Debating Committee. The university teams selected on the basis of challengers or benchmarks participate in Parliamentary debates across the country including the National Law School Debate, the Mukarji Memorial Debate at St. Stephen's College, Delhi, the NALSAR IV and the NUJS Parliamentary Debate at WBNUJS, Kolkata. Year round activities held on the campus include: Intra-university sporting events. The university has an endowment cricket tournament, the Sudeep Memorial Cricket Tournament, named after an alumnus. There is an annual football  tournament held in the university known as the Hidayatullah Premier League (HPL). A basketball tournament, Dunkyard, has also been held since 2013.