NLUJAA Guwahati today selected Nalsar Hyderabad registrar Prof Vijender Kumar as its new vice chancellor, after over five months of functioning without a vice chancellor (VC) and on the eve of a deadline conceded to hungerstriking students to fix the college’s administration.

The former UK Commonwealth fellow, MDU Rohtak PhD holder and Kurukshetra University LLM holder Kumar, who is currently a professor of law and head of the centre for family law at Nalsar, was selected from a shortlist on which the other incumbents were Gulbarga University law Prof JS Patil and Banaras Hindu University law professor Prof DP Verma.

A search committee headed by Supreme Court justice Ranjan Gogoi and with Guwahati high court justice Harikesh Singh and former law commission member Mool Chand Sharma, which was formed after the initial VC search committee at the law school was disbanded.

Kumar could not be reached for comment at the time of going to press but a source close to the process confirmed to Legally India that Kumar had received a verbal intimation of his selection today and would receive the official order by tomorrow.

Last month 230 NLUJAA students had gone on a hunger strike protesting the lack of a VC at the law school and jobs, among other deficiencies.

The strike was suspended 27 September after teachers’ assurances to hold a general body meeting by today to cure some of the students’ complaints.

One student told Legally India that students would resume the hunger strike tomorrow if their demands were not met.