BELAGAVI: Disappointed with the National Law School of India University’s (NLSIU) stand on providing 25 per cent domicile reservation to Karnataka students, MLCs cutting across the party lines demanded the state government to commit the prestigious law school to provide 25 per cent domicile reservation to Kannadigas. Responding to the legislators’ demand Law and Parliamentary affairs Minister HK Patil said he would soon convene a meeting of all the legislators and NLSIU board of directors to discuss the 25 per cent reservation to Karnataka students.
Opposing the NLSIU’s stand and assumption on providing 25 per cent reservation to Karnataka students, Congress MLC ML Anil Kumar sought state government’s intervention. “Rather than providing 25 per cent reservation to Karnataka students, the NLSIU is claiming that they have been giving 25 per cent horizontal reservation on compartment basis in the general merit list based on the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT),” Anil Kumar brought to the notice of the state government.
Anil Kumar further stated that the NLSIU, as per the rules of the state government, was supposed to provide 25 per cent direct reservation to Karnataka students other than the CLAT list. “The Institute has been giving reservations to students who have topped the CLAT under the general merit category! When they have topped the list at the national level, where is the question of providing 25 per cent reservation? The government must review the reservation provided by the National Law School in other cities of India. Given the fact that the state government has provided them with land, power, they should not be evading the reservation and causing injustice to the state students.”
Supporting the claims of Anil Kumar, JDS leader SL Bhojegowda demanded the state government to hold a meeting of all the legislators from Legislative Council with the Governing council of NLSIU. Yet another Congress MLC K Govindraj also told the House that previously the House had resolved to direct the NLSIU to provide 25 per cent direct reservation other than those topped the CLAT list.
As MLCs cutting across the party lines joined the debate, minister for Law and Parliamentary affairs HK Patil defended the NLSIU and said, “Even though initially there were issues, the relation between the institute and the state government is cordial and most of the issues have been resolved. If any of the MLCs still have an issue, they can bring such incidents to the notice of the state government.”
However, when MLCs insisted on 25 per cent direct reservation to Karnataka students, Patil said, “As per the demand of the MLCs cutting across the party lines, I will convene a meeting of all the MLCs with the governing council of NLSIU to discuss the 25 per cent reservation.”
As per the state government’s records, the NLSIU, over the past five years, has admitted 397 students from Karnataka, of which the highest 223 students were admitted to the five-years BA LLB (Hons) course followed by 90 students for LLM course, 51 students for three-years LLB (Hons) and 33 for the Master’s Programme in Public Policy.