According to Hindi local tabloid Pradesh Today, NLIU Bhopal’s home-state, Madhya Pradesh, would allocate Rs 10 crore to begin construction of the state’s “first law university” in March.

The report that according to a literal translation from Hindi was headlined “National Law University screwed, MP’s first law university will be established in Jabalpur”, cited Madhya Pradesh education minister Deepak Joshi as its only source, and was first re-reported by Bar & Bench.

Translated from Hindi, Joshi allegedly said:

Due to technical difficulty in setting up a national law university in the state, the state government has waved the green flag for a law university in Jabalpur. […] Last year at the inauguration ceremony of the IT Park here, union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had laid emphasis on looking for the potential for a national law school, this was taken into consideration by chief minister Shivraj Singh who in a high-level committee meeting ordered the authorities to set up the state’s first law university. According to education minister Deepak Joshi a sum of Rs 10 crore will be set aside for this.

UPDATE: An LI commenter, “Advocate Jabalpur” below, suggests the following alternative and reasonable interpretation of the story:

Law Minister, when he recently came to Jabalpur, had directed to consider the feasibility of setting up NLU in Jabalpur. However, There were some technical difficulties in setting up another NLU in the state (NLIU being already there). Thus, a State Law University is proposed to be set up in Jabalpur.

Other than a possibly oblique reference in the headline, the report does not reference NLIU Bhopal at all, while Pradesh Today’s staple editorial output seems to include “hot and sexy pictures” of Bollywood and other celebrities.

Pradesh does not appear to have reported news relating to national law schools before.

The NLIU administration was not reachable for comment by phone.