Bangalore University makes U-turn on reservation of seats for locals for providing 7 additional acres to NLSIU

National Law School of India University (NLSIU) was started in 1988 in the Jnanabharati campus of Bangalore University.
| Photo Credit: K Murali Kumar

Bangalore University has made a U-turn and withdrawn its earlier condition that 50% seats should be reserved for Karnataka students for providing seven acres of additional land to the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) at its Jnanabharati campus in Bengaluru.

The condition of reserving seats for students from Karnataka has been left to the discretion of the government. Bangalore University passed a resolution in this regard in the 177^th syndicate meeting on October 29.

Jayakara S.M., Vice-Chancellor of the university, said, “In the last syndicate meeting, approval was given with two conditions regarding giving additional seven acres of land to NLSIU in Jnanabharati campus. Among these conditions was that 50% seats should be reserved for students of Karnataka state. However, the government has objected to the clause.”

“According to the agreement between the government of Karnataka and NLSIU, a certain number of seats have been reserved for the students of Karnataka. Also, since NLSIU-Bengaluru offers more seats to students from Karnataka than NLSIUs operating in other States, the conditions of Bangalore University should be as per the government agreement. Our syndicate has imposed the above condition in the interest of benefiting the students from Karnataka. But the government did not agree to this condition. Therefore, it is better to leave this matter to the discretion of the government,” according to the decision taken in the syndicate meeting.

NLSIU was started in 1988 at Bangalore University’s Jnanabharati campus. No reservation policy for students of Karnataka was in place at NLSIU between 1988-2020. However, the government of Karnataka amended the NLSIU Act 1986 in 2020, and fixed 25% reservation of seats for Karnataka students.

But the High court ruled against this amendment. The State Government filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the High Court decision. The case is pending.

Meanwhile, the NLSIU reserved 25% of seats for Karnataka students on a horizontal basis. Since 2021, the university voluntarily adopted the 25% compartmentalised horizontal reservation for Karnataka students under the NLSIU Inclusion and Expansion Plan 2021-25.

According to this, a total of 43 seats in 2021-22, 78 in 2022-23 and 115 seats in 2023-24 have been reserved for Karnataka students in admission to BA LLB (Hons), LLB (Hons) and LLM courses.

Bangalore University has already given 23 acres of land on lease to NLSIU in Jnanabharati campus. NLSIU had requested additional land for campus expansion.

In its 176^th syndicate meeting, Bangalore University decided to give seven acres of land to NLSIU for a period of 30 years on lease at ₹50,000 per acre per annum.