GD Goenka University pro vice chancellor (VC) Prof Sanjeevi Shanthakumar will be the new director of GNLU Gandhinagar.

The GNLU executive and general council signed off on his name at the meetings yesterday, according to our sources.

Shanthakumar confirmed us by phone today that GNLU has communicated to him that he has got the job, although he has not yet received the formal appointment letter yet.

It is understood that the GNLU councils are aiming at a 1 July start date.

Admin experience

Shanthakumar has a rich CV running and teaching at a number of different law schools.

He has been pro VC at GD Goenka in Gurgaon from 2018 and dean academics there from April 2016.

From 2014 to 2016 he was the founder dean of the law faculty at SGT University in Gurgaon.

From 2010 to 2014 he was founder director of ITM Law School, which is now known as North Cap University, also in Gurgaon. He was also professor there.

From 2009 to 2010 his first gig in running a law school came along, as founder director and professor of law at MATS Law School in Raipur, which is part of MATS University.

Teaching experience

The Madras University LLB, LLM and PhD began working in academia at Madras University from 1991 as a junior research fellow specialising in consumer law and teaching comparative constitutional law.

He then became senior lecturer law at Dr Ambedkar Government Law College Chennai between 1996 and 2001, teaching jurisprudence, constitutional law and international law, also managing the moot court committee and coordinated an “environmental law capacity building project supported by” NLSIU Bangalore and the World Bank.

From 2001 to 2004 he was at GLC Madurai in Tamil Nadu as senior lecturer in law, teaching environmental law and international law.

And from 2004 to 2010 he was associate professor of law & controller of examinations at HNLU Raipur teaching and being faculty advisor to the recruitment and internship committee, and the moot committee.

Litigation & publications

Not just that, he had also practised as an advocate before the Madras high court for seven years before beginning to teach law, according to an online profile and has published a number of books and research articles:

His areas of specialization are Environmental Law, Human Rights Law, International Law and Constitutional Law. He has authored 3 books on Environmental Law published by Lexis Nexis, Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University and National Law School of India University, Bangalore and 2 books on Human Rights Law. His Book on Human Rights Law published by Peoples Watch, is being used as a Hand Book for training the Human Rights Defenders by many Civil Society Organizations in India and is translated in many Indian Languages.

The mixed Patel era

Shanthakumar will succeed director Dr Bimal Patel whose tenure for 10 years ended in December, and has seen GNLU grow significantly in size and infrastructure, as students have won significant accolades in moots and recruitments.

GNLU is also now ranked sixth in the order of Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) taker preferences, and enjoys enviable budgets and support from the state government.

However, Patel had also presided over a number of controversies relating to his management style. One of the last such troubles related to Patel allegedly having tried to interfere in the search for his successor.