NLU Mumbai, the only one of three national law schools to be established in Maharashtra that previously appeared to be on schedule after appointing vice-chancellor Bhavani Prasad Panda, has been plagued by bureaucratic roadblocks, reported the DNA.

The university would be unlikely to be able to offer admissions in the 2015-16 academic year, an unnamed official told DNA: “Prof Panda has been running from pillar to post to meet the CM to set the ball rolling for MNLU, but to no avail. Babus in the chief minister’s office and the higher education department have kept the ace academician waiting for the past one and half months completely, ignoring the urgency of the matter.”

Panda, however, remained optimistic to the paper, saying: “I am still hopeful to start the MNLU this year provided the government gives me a temporary campus. I have been put up at Ismail Yusuf College in Jogeshwari. A few rooms in the same campus would be fine to start with 60 students. This campus is spacious and has surplus land. The MNLU can be established here later on. This place is close to airport also, which goes in its favour.”

And while the college had missed the deadline to be enrolled in the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) this year, Panda told DNA that he had “convinced” NLU Delhi to hold a join admission test for both colleges in NLU Delhi’s All India Law Entrance Test (Ailet), which is separate from the CLAT