National Law Universities
National Law Universities (NLU) or National Law Schools are central public law schools in India, founded pursuant to the second-generation reforms for legal education sought to be implemented by the Bar Council of India. These law schools are regulated by the Bar Council of India and are under the ownership of Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India. The first NLU was the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), located at Bangalore, which admitted its first batch in 1988. Since then, most of the states in India have established a NLU. Currently there are  23 NLUs across the country. Since their inception, these law schools have continuously been ranked as India's most prestigious and premier law schools by various agencies and have been ranked amongst the best law schools globally by leading agencies like Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) and Times Higher Education. The admissions to these universities is conducted through the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) and is extremely competitive with an acceptance rate of as low as 2 to 3 percent. Historical setting. Traditionally legal education in India was conducted through the medium of non-specitoalized universities of India which granted law degrees  like any other graduate degree. These universities referred and taught the curriculum prescribed by the Bar Council of India, but since they were under the overall control and supervision of the University Grants Commission, therefore it was not possible for the Bar Council to effectively pursue reforms in legal education. This system continued for more than two decades with the overall legal education supervision by the Bar Council, since its establishment in terms of the Advocates Act, 1961. However, there were calls for reforms from all quarters of the country in general because of the falling standards of the bar  and there were mounting pressures over the Bar Council of India to change the way legal education was imparted in India. The first concrete decision to this end was taken in 1984 when various proposals to modernize legal education were considered and approved by the Legal Education Committee of the Bar Council, in an attempt to improve legal education throughout India. One major proposal was the decision to establish specialized institutions to impart legal education in an integrated and diversified manner. The aim was to revitalize the legal profession by making law an attractive profession and making it competitive to  attract talent, which was hitherto diverted to other professional areas such as medicine and engineering. Structure of National Law Schools. In contrast with the existing pattern of legal education in India, the proposed autonomous law schools varied in structural design and in various other respects. Some of these can be identified through the characteristics they carry: List of National Law Universities. The list of National Law Universities in India is as follows: Admissions. Admission to all LLB and LLM in the National Law Schools in India is based on performance on Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) except admission to National  Law University Delhi, which is done by AILET (All India Law Entrance Test). Proposed National Law Universities. Government in Jammu and Kashmir plans to set up Jammu and Kashmir National Law University in 2019 to set up the state's National law university, The Jammu & Kashmir National Law University (JKNLU) in the capital city of Srinagar, India. The state of Sikkim is set to establish its National law university as the Sikkim National Law University (SNLU) in 2021 at the state capital, Gangtok. The state legislature passed the Sikkim National Law University Act in 2018. The state of Uttarakhand is  establishing its National law University after passing the NLU of Uttarakhand Act by the state legislature in 2011 at Ranipokhari, 30 km from Dehradun. The Government of India gave its permission to the state to establish the NLU in Uttarakhand after eight years in 2019. The state of Uttar Pradesh is planning to establish its second National Law University by the name of Uttar Pradesh National Law University in Prayagraj (Allahabad). The state has earmarked 25 acres of land in Jhalwa, Prayagraj. Prayagrag being the home of Allahabad High Court's principal bench has long been earmarked for the development  of an NLU in the city. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is proposed to be the Chancellor of this university. The government of Tripura has announced its plans to establish a National Law University in the state, making it the second NLU in the North-east after NLUJAA. The state government's cabinet has approved the proposal of the Department of Justice to establish the NLU by 2022. The states of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Goa are the only states which do not currently have a NLU or any existing plans to establish one. Future  plan. A bill in the Lok Sabha called The National Law Universities of India Bill, 2016 is under consideration for providing the NLUs the status of Institute of National Importance in India.