NUJS finally constitutes 16-years-overdue review commission, 9 months after resolving to

1st NUJS review commission: Mohan Gopal, Faizan Mustafa, Lalit Magotra (L to R)
1st NUJS review commission: Mohan Gopal, Faizan Mustafa, Lalit Magotra (L to R)

NUJS Kolkata has finally constituted its 16-years-overdue review commission, nine months after former Chief Justice of India (CJI) TS Thakur signed a resolution to institute a judicial review of the law school.

The commission will be headed by Prof Mohan Gopal who is the director at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies Dehradun, confirmed a source with knowledge of the process. Nalsar Hyderabad vice chancellor Prof Faizan Mustafa and former Jammu University physics department head Prof Lalit Magotra are the other two members on the three-member commission, it is understood.

Justice Thakur had signed off the resolution to institute a review of NUJS on 12 November 2016 while attending its general council meeting as its then ex-officio chancellor.

NUJS, like other national law universities, is under the statutory obligation of being reviewed by such a commission every five years but this current commission is the first ever such body constituted for the law school’s review in its entire history.

The resolution to institute this first review followed a Student Juridical Association (SJA) resolution moved before the administration asking for such review.

NUJS VC Prof Ishwara Bhat said that he was yet to receive an official confirmation for the review commission having been constituted and did not know when the commission would begin its investigation.

Comments

Darkseid 21 Jul 2017, 12:02
+11 -0
If the VC doesn't 'know' and the CJI had already signed off on this 9 months back, who actually formed this commission now and how?
Ghonshu Ram 21 Jul 2017, 13:05
+2 -0
Gestation period for humans is nine months
Insider 21 Jul 2017, 15:43
+15 -2
Good news and well done to Legally India for its persistent coverage. The alumni and students must now push for the following to be investigated:

1) Financial crisis in early 2000s (the first Registrar should be questioned).

2) Recovery of money stolen by last Registrar (dismissal was upheld by High Court)

3) How a faculty member can start his own journal and write articles in it like this ,and then get promoted: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4XaA30casoDaWlRWXl3ak90QWs/edit

4) Hiring of poor faculty by Ishwar Bhat and lack of accountability by Bhat

5) Lack of involvement of alumni as guest lecturers. Even if the admin insists on LLM degrees there are enough well-qualified alumni with LLM degrees and some are even teaching at places like Jindal
Guest 21 Jul 2017, 15:53
+6 -4
The concern is that MoGo will go soft on Bhat because of parochialism, Faizan will go with what MoGo says, and the other character will sleep through the meetings. But if the SJA keeps ups the pressure the commission will be forced to act
Hmm 21 Jul 2017, 16:46
+17 -2
With all due respect, before taking up these assignments, I think the NALSAR VC ought to devote more time to the university he heads.

There are a lot of things in NALSAR which require his attention.
Guest 21 Jul 2017, 23:12
+2 -27
We fully stand by learned administration gif NUJS and Honble Vice Chancellor Prof Bhat. We condemn slanders of the Legally India.
Bhatta 22 Jul 2017, 05:02
+10 -1
[...] - you [...] - cause you have no [...] brain - apologies - Kian - but this is all very frustrating. Incompetent people are running our universities and making sure that the rules remain what they do so that the system remains in their favour. For example (thankfully not yet in force) - while UGC streamline the LLM to one year as per international standards, BCI actually proposed a rule that stated that if you want to teach and you have a one year LLM you need to also have an additional MPhil -that is just trying to sabotage the one year LLM option. There are numerous examples like this. Point is that someone somewhere needs to radically shake up things and that ain't happening - review commissions be damned.
Darkseid 22 Jul 2017, 05:30
+4 -0
So long as you remain ignorant of basics of law such as the difference between libel and slander, Kian shouldn't be getting too worried about your outrage.
Where is the GIF? 22 Jul 2017, 17:00
+0 -0
Legally India, Kian and whoever else,

Please make a GIF. Please. Something funny would do.
Guest 2 22 Jul 2017, 05:38
+8 -0
NUJS campus, especially the hostels are in very bad shape.Administration people are very indifferent and inefficient.Complaints about infrastructure to the VC has fallen on deaf ears. Hope the review covers all this and happens earlier.
robocop 22 Jul 2017, 18:45
+9 -0
While it is important to hold people accountable for past misdeeds, we must also use the opportunity to seek constructive change. The most important changes needed are improvements to infrastructure and improvements to faculty. Since funds are limited, the private sector should be approached for donations. The audi, library etc can be renamed after companies. Also, chair professorships can be established where the salaries come from corporate donations.

Just solve the issue of infra and faculty, and NUJS will be number 1.
Guest 22 Jul 2017, 23:08
+3 -0
Kian please report this serious news that NLIU students have alleged sexual ragging . This is a huge issue in many NLUs, and there have been incidents of sexual ragging at NLSIU Bangalore which have been hushed up.

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/bhopal-nliu-students-accuse-seniors-of-ragging-and-sexual-abuse-proctoral-board-starts-probe-4762754/
Rijiju 23 Jul 2017, 12:37
+8 -0
The bankrupt administration is trying to avoid the review commission. Why doesn't the vice chancellor know? Why does he not act to make it successful? Where does he get the audacity to undermine a court mandated process?

Btw, nujs students should brace for a massive fee hike. Insider information. It will be thrust upon you suddenly, without any prior discussion. Since most students are super rich they won't even notice. This is inevitable due to the ever widening fiscal deficit. Time to pay for the fancy mess.
Guest 23 Jul 2017, 15:33
+1 -0
The country wasn't asked before demobilisation, why should students be asked before fee hike.

The court stated executive knows fiscal needs best (despite FRs being trampled?), they will say so again.
Guest 2 24 Jul 2017, 05:34
+5 -0
Already the fees in NUJS is higher than NLS and NALSAR
Darkseid 23 Jul 2017, 15:06
+0 -0
Kian, is there any reason why you didn't cover the Bengal Government's plan to open satellite campuses of NUJS? A committee has already been formed to look into the matter and while the alumni are incensed, so far no formal protests have been made.
Guest 23 Jul 2017, 20:29
+4 -0
It was covered by Kian. He can't do anything if the SJA is spineless.
pantera 23 Jul 2017, 17:40
+4 -0
Re infra, other NLUs have various facilities named after law firms and corporates in exchange for donations, so NUJS can easily do the same.

Re faculty, I just visited the Jindal law school website. As many as 10 to 12 profs are NUJS alumni and a similar number are from NALSAR. They must have close to 50 alumni if you include all NLUs. Most of them just have a one-year LLM. So nothing stops Bhat from hiring such alumni in large numbers, instead of acting like it's a big deal.

Kian can you please also do a story on the above: corporate donations to NLUs and hiring of alumni by Jindal?
Guest 24 Jul 2017, 13:46
+0 -0
All of those are on packages of 1.2+ pm, whereas even regular appointees in government institutions get 60k pm. Add to that Delhi being the legal capital of the country.

Clearly those are two huge driving factors among others for Jindal stockpiling ammo.
Guest 23 Jul 2017, 17:41
+14 -0
Bhat. Must. Go.
Roadrunner 24 Jul 2017, 13:23
+7 -0
Not calling the alumni for classes is not something only the VC does at NUJS. There are many faculty who are hugely insecure about their own teaching ability and they always try to sabotage alumni's efforts to contribute. Something like that happened very recently there with a credit course. And most of the NLUs are like that only. These people won't teach themselves, nor will they let others teach. That's the reason very few alumni have applied even when recruitments are taking place at NUJS right now.
Guest 24 Jul 2017, 18:27
+5 -0
Spot on, bro. The VC and his stooges don't want to call the star alumni (not even for guest lectures) because they know that they will outclass the other teachers. They cite excuses like lack of an LLM degree and inability to invite people outside Cal. This is BS because: 1) many alumni have LLMs, whether in firms, advocates chambers, NGOs or in academia, 2) many alumni are originally from Cal and visit often. In contrast, Faizan Mustafa at NALSAR wrote to the alumni and made a special effort to reach out to them to teach.
Impartial comment 25 Jul 2017, 14:48
+0 -6
This is impartial post on behalf of NUJS community. All type of nonsense is being stated here. Truth is that Prof Bhat is the best Vice Chancellor of all. Kindly note these achievements with PROOF:

1) Prof Bhat has done most to improve NUJS.
Proof: NUJS has got 3rd rank in India Today which it never got under any previous VC: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/bestcolleges/2017/readyrecnor_directory_list.jsp?Y=2017&ST=Law

2) Prof Bhat has organised lectures by many famous figures.
Proof: See lecture by Prof Marc Galanter. This is just one example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTThNcvuBS4

3) Under Prof Bhat NUJS has got best placements.
Proof: See report by Legally India itself http://www.legallyindia.com/home/nujs-2017-wins-100-final-jobs-for-78-members-big-7-firms-hire-53-led-by-khaitan-3-foreign-firm-jobs-20170610-8575

4) Under Prof Bhat NUJS won William Vis moot court
Proof is here: http://sja.nujs.edu/newsroom/2017/04/02/nujs-wins-the-14th-willem-c-vis-east-international-commercial-arbitration-moot-2

5) Under Prof Bhat NUJS won Rhodes scholarship two times
Proof is here: http://sja.nujs.edu/newsroom/2016/12/11/rhodes-scholar-2017

6) Prof Bhat is the most friendly and humble VC and have no ego.
Proof: He is so friendly that he plays cricket with students: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOQ9XgjMfCo

As expected of lawyers one must give PROOF to make allegations. I have given solid PROOF to support statements whereas some foolish persons are posting messages without any proof. So I request Legally India not to publish messages without proof as it gives bad name to the college for no reason.
Student Achievements 31 Jul 2017, 11:11
+1 -0
These are student achievements, my friend. All of them. Bhat and the administration are often roadblocks while the students are working and fighting for these achievements. Its a shame to pass the persistent hardwork of the students as Bhat's achievements.
Darkseid 31 Jul 2017, 15:52
+0 -0
I think he was driven by the logic sab Ishwar ki kripa se hai!
Darkseid 27 Jul 2017, 03:08
+2 -0
To paraphrase a commentator from another post, itni bhakti kahaan se laate ho subah sbuah, bhaiya?