National Law University, Jodhpur
National Law University, Jodhpur (NLUJ) is a public law school and a National Law University established under the National Law University, Jodhpur, Act, 1999 enacted by the Rajasthan State Legislature. The University was established for the advancement of learning, teaching, research and diffusion of knowledge in the field of law. It is one of the autonomous law schools in India. The University is recognized by the Bar Council of India, as well as the University Grants Commission under Section 12 (B) of the UGC Act, 1956, and is a member of the Association of Indian Universities . History. The idea for the establishment of a National Law University in every state was recommended by Justice Aziz Mushabber Ahmadi in his 1994 committee report as a way to improve the standard and quality of legal education in India. The recommendations were finally implemented and National Law University, Jodhpur was set up in November 1999 by the passing of the National Law University Act, 1999 by the State Legislature of Rajasthan under the leadership of N.L. Mitra the founding Vice-Chancellor. Since the establishment, the University has seen three more Vice-Chancellors, Dr. Poonam Pradhan Saxena, a professor from  the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi being the latest, who took over charge from Justice N.N. Mathur in 2013 and has been the Vice-Chancellor ever since. The first UG and PG batch of the university was admitted in 2001, with the Undergraduate batch passing out in 2006 and the first convocation of the university taking place in 2007, the same was attended by Bhairon Singh Shekhawat the then Vice-President of India and the then Governor of Rajasthan and former President of India Pratibha Patil. The university decided to stop offering the B.Sc. LL.B. (Hons.) Undergraduate degree from  the Academic Year 2016-17. The Rajasthan State Legislature in 2022 by amending the National Law University, Jodhpur Act, set a 2 Term maximum limit and a higher age limit of 70 for the position of the Vice Chancellor,(whichever is earlier) and made it compulsory for the Registrar of the university to be an Indian Administrative Service or a Super time Scale Rajasthan Administrative Service Officer. Response to the pandemic. The University on 14/03/2020 decided to suspend all classes till 31/03/2020 because of the state directives, the same was extended indefinitely due to the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic throughout  the nation and the classes shifted to an online medium. Unfortunately, one student succumbed to Covid-19 during this time, which led to student protests against the Vice-Chancellor and the University administration. The university started conducting online classes for the first-year Undergraduate students immediately after the declaration of the CLAT results to make up for the time lost due to the late conduction of the entrance examination. The 14th Convocation of the university happened virtually and was streamed on YouTube. The 15th Convocation of the university was canceled entirely due to the spread of the Omicron covid-19 variant. The  University after deferring the decision to reopen once finally decided on 17/02/2022 to reopen the university in a hybrid mode from 1/03/2022 for all the students, keeping in mind the Rajasthan Government guidelines and the Covid-19 situation. Academics. Courses and curriculum. NLUJ currently offers following courses: Undergraduate. The university offers its flagship five-year integrated undergraduate program in two streams B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) and B.B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) Both are five year ten-semester courses with six subjects taught every semester and are open to students only on a fully residential basis. Admission to these courses is through the Common Law  Admission Test. The intake capacity of the undergraduate degree program is 104 students + 16 NRI/NRI Sponsored students with 15% and 7.5% seats being reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes respectively. 5% seats for Physically Handicapped students is also reserved in each category. The Honors course is offered to fourth and fifth year students in the following streams: Post-graduate. LLM. The university offers a fully residential 1 Year (two-semester) LL.M. in Corporate Laws and Intellectual Property Rights. The selection for this program takes place through Common Law Admission Test (PG). The intake capacity for the LL.M.  program is 50 Students with 15%, 7.5% and 5% seats being reserved for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Specially Abled Persons respectively. MBA. The University offers a four-semester fully residential M.B.A. program with specialization in Insurance and Insurance Risk Management. The intake capacity for the MBA program is 40 Students with 15%, 7.5% and 3% seats being reserved for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Physically Handicapped candidates respectively. The selection for this program happens based on two factors which are taken together to decide the merit: Doctorate. The University offers LL.D. and Ph.D. programs at a doctorate level. The  university conducts a National Level examination each year for the selection of candidates for the Ph.D. program, which is followed by a personal interview, candidates who have qualified UGC-NET and JRF are exempt from the written exam. Rankings. The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranked it 8th among law colleges in 2021. "The Week"s "Top Law Colleges 2019" list ranked NLUJ 5th in its List. Publications. The University with the help of students and faculty publishes many high quality academic journals, a full list of the various journals published by the NLUJ is here-under: MOUs and Collaboration. The  university has signed many MOUs and collaborated with many different educational institutions and organizations, the list of various MOUs and Collaborations are: Research. National Law University, Jodhpur has established the following Centers with a view to facilitate students in understanding the intricacies of legal research, corporate work culture and develop insight in alternative forms of learning on academic and corporate subjects: The University also conducts several short and medium-term orientations, training and refresher courses for NGOs, Government officials and public administrators, local self-Government, legal professionals including members of the bar and the bench, other administrative authorities and corporate  officials. Student life. Moot Courts and Students' Achievements. Moot Courts are needed for legal education today and they are well integrated into the curriculum of the University. They are a part of the University's culture both internally and externally. On the external side, since its establishment, the University has been hosting the M.M. Singhvi Bar Council of India Trust Moot Court Competition, organized to commemorate the memory of the late M.M. Singhvi, a lawyer in India. The Competition is organized under the aegis of the M.M. Singhvi Memorial Trust and the Bar Council of India. Teams from almost all  law colleges in the country participate in the Competition and since 2007, the competition has turned international with even teams from outside India participating in the Competition. The University also hosted the North Indian rounds of the Stetson Environmental Law Moot Court Competition, which is another Moot Court Competition. Apart from this, the University has also hosted the Surana & Surana National Corporate Law Moot Court Competition which is sponsored by Surana and Surana. The first national competition was won in 2004 when the team composed of Manmeet Singh Rai ('08) and Sagarika Chakraborty ('08) won the national rounds of the  Louis M. Brown Client Counseling Competition held at the Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur. The team subsequently represented India at the World finals of the Louis M. Brown Client Counseling Competition at Glasgow. Since then the University has been victorious at the Susan J. Ferrell Inter-cultural Human Rights Moot Court Competition conducted by the St. Thomas University, Florida, in January 2007. The team composed of Anil Raj ('07), Gauarav Solanki ('07), Reshma Khan ('08), Kunal Mehta ('08) and Riddhi Sancheti ('09) secured the first position and also the second-best memorial prize. Also, Reshma Khan and Riddhi Sancheti were  awarded the "Best Oralist" and the "Third Best Oralist" respectively. Besides, the University was an Elimination Round Participant (Frederic Eisemann Award) at the Fifteenth Annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, 2008 held in Vienna. The University teams participating in the East editions of the Vis Moot, held in Hong Kong have won several accolades, including Runners up for Best Speaker (Siddhant Chamola, 2013), Honorable Mentions for personal achievements by the speakers. The University has qualified six times to represent India at the Shearman and Sterling Rounds (White and Case Rounds since the 2009–10 edition) of the elite Jessup  Moot Court Competition (2005–06, 2006–07, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2015–16, 2018–19) and was Octa-Finalist in most of these Editions, also winning various memorial and speaker citations. In 2012, the University team consisting of Aritra Roy, Lakshmi Neelakantan and Jai Sahai has won the International Rounds of the Stetson Environmental Law Moot Court Competition 2012. This team also won the Surana and Surana Stetson India North Rounds earlier year. The University team has also been a consistent performer at the Stetson International Environmental Moot Court Competition, having had won "Best Advocate" and "Best Memoranda" awards in many editions of the event. The  team represented by Kartikey Mahajan ('11) and Meha Rashmi('11) won the 2009 edition of the North India rounds of the Stetson. They were also quarter-finalists at the International rounds of the Stetson moot. In 2009, for the second year in running the university qualified for the International Criminal Court Moot Court Competition to be held in Hague in 2010. They bagged the award for the 'Best Victims' Counsel' in the 2010 edition. Only two teams from India had qualified for this competition. In 2009, two members of the team representing the University at the Investment Law Arbitration Moot held  at Frankfurt, Germany bagged honorable mentions for their speaking. Teams from the university have received the Sarah Derrington Achievement Award twice at the International Maritime Law Moot Court Competition, Perth. Students from the University (teams comprising Joydeep Sarkar ('09), Kartikeya Saran ('09) and Nupur Kabra ('08) in 2008; Rishabh Chopra ('10), Shashank Prabhat Kumar ('10) and Meghana Sharafudeen ('11) in 2009; Arjun Mital ('13), Zara Kaiser ('13 and Gargi Mishra ('13) in 2012; Bharatendu Agarwal ('13), Preeti Chockalingam ('13) and Namrata Amarnath ('14) in 2013 and Ninni Thomas ('15), Aphune Kezo ('14) in 2014) have also been selected to represent  India at five editions of the Jean Pictet Competition on International Humanitarian Law. It also has been a consistent performer in the All India Bar Council Moot Court Competition. Legal Aid Clinic. The Legal Aid Clinic of National Law University, Jodhpur spreads legal awareness amongst the rural masses of Rajasthan through educational street plays and free legal advice. College committees. The following seven committees are student run and organize various events that take place in the University: Events. In September 2009, the Sports Committee of the University hosted "Yuvardha", the University's first Inter Law College Sports Fest. The success  inspired the Jodhpur students to a new high. The student body then came up with a football league for law students- "Lex la Liga" (league of lawyers). The league is a professionally organized system based on a 5-a-side format (popularly known as 'Futsal'), played between five teams owned by individuals or consortia of students and alumni. It is run by a student-managed University Football Association- the 'Asociación De Fútbol De La Universidad', inspired by cricket's Indian Premier League, with a 'Commissioner' and a 'Sheriff' to oversee the entire league. The first edition of this league was  successfully conducted in January–March 2010. The University hosted its first Inter Law College Literary and Cultural Fest named "NH-65" from 7 to 10 October 2010. Deriving its name from the location of the University on National Highway No. 65, the fest had a wide array of events including the flagship Parliamentary Debate, Presidential Debate, Mega Quiz and two concerts. It is presently in its 6th year, and will be held on October 6 to 9 of 2016. Centre For Wellness And Counselling. The Centre was established to ensure the upliftment of mental well-being of the students, the same  is done by providing free of cost confidential therapy sessions, special lectures and awareness sessions on the topic of mental health. IT Infrastructure. National Law University provides 24*7 Internet access to every student. It has subscribed to various online Law and other libraries like Westlaw (India and UK), Jstor, Hein Online, Lexis Nexis, Economic and Political Weekly, Kluwer Arbitration, Kluwer Online, SCC Online and Manupatra which makes it easier for students to find relevant research work. The University also provides access to Turnitin which is an anti-plagiarism software to all the students. The Local Area Network (LAN) provides  connectivity to the entire campus including the Halls of Residence. Wireless Internet connectivity is also provided throughout the campus. Graduate Outcomes. Students who have graduated from NLUJ have pursued many diverse range of careers, the most prominent one being in the area Corporate Law as a Corporate Lawyer. The average package for students opting for corporate law is around Rs. 8-16 lakhs. With many top Indian law firms like Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Khaitan & Co. and AZB & Partners recruiting from the university. International Law Firms and Magic Circle firms like Allen and Overy, Clifford Chance, Herbert Smith  and Linklaters have offered vacation schemes to Under Graduate students with packages ranging between Rs. 28 lakh to Rs. 30 lakh per annum. Many Students have also joined Financial Institutions and private companies as consultants/lawyers, like ICICI Bank, Ernst & Young, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank. Students have also joined many Public Sector Undertakings and Regulatory Bodies like SEBI, Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Heavy Electrical and National Thermal Power Corporation. Many students also opt for Litigation in the various High Courts and the Supreme Court, other students opt to prepare for Civil Services and Judicial Services Examinations with many getting  selected as Judges and Bureaucrats and serving across the country.