NLSIU Bangalore has put out a call to recruit five permanent faculty members, for the first time since 2009, when vice chancellor Prof Venkat Rao had joined, with one permanent faculty having been recruited as long ago as in 2008.

The notification is for hiring 4 assistant professors of law, and one assistant professor in political science, all under UGC pay bands and qualifications.

NLSIU’s student bar association (SBA) is understood to have been instrumental in convincing Rao and the administration to make a call for permanent faculty, commenting: “The Student Bar Association welcomes the notification issued by the University, which was being considered for a while, for the recruitment of permanent faculty.

“We are positive that this will lead to the hiring of competent and committed individuals who will engage fruitfully with our students and foster growth and learning within and outside the classroom.”

The SBA added in its statement: “We thank the vice-chancellor and the administration for their co-operation and understanding and hope to work with them to ensure that NLSIU will continue to attract talent from legal academia on a regular basis.”

NLSIU had last recruited a permanent professor - Dr Ashok R Patil (pictured) - into its consumer law chair in August 2008.

Since Rao had joined NLSIU as vice chancellor in May 2009, we understand that all faculty appointments had been made under ad hoc contracts, which are usually renewable annually at the administration’s discretion.

We reached out to vice chancellor Rao for comment via SMS; he said he had nothing to add beyond what had been notified on the NLSIU website.

When we asked Rao for reasons as to why no permanent recruitments had taken place in the last 9 years, or if there was any advantage to hiring faculty on contract, he did not respond since yesterday morning.

One academic explained that non-permanent faculty fixed salaries are usually lower than UGC pay scales.

The above can result in high temporary faculty staff turnover, who may get better pay and tenure at other NLUs or other universities.

The academic commented: “The quality of teaching will suffer if important courses are taught by a revolving door of teachers in temporary positions.”

The NLS website states that it is “seeking talented, committed and dynamic legal minds in different areas to join as Faculty for fulfilling its mission and invites applications for the following posts in the pay bands mentioned below”.

The pay bands for the roles are specified as “15600-39100 AGP 6000”.