– Reshma Ravishanker (Bengaluru)

Sudhir Krishnaswamy

Routinely ranked india’s #1 law school in the annual EW India Higher Education Rankings and other media league tables, the Bangalore-based National Law School of India University (NLSIU, estb.1986) is losing its shine. On May 12, students of this premier law school staged a night-long vigil to protest slum-like living conditions — overcrowded hostels, persistent water shortage and inadequate supplementary facilities on campus. Students contend that the fully residential university’s campus infrastructure has not been expanded in pace with rising student numbers.

The immediate provocation for the protests was water supply disruption to NLSIU’s 11 hostels, malfunctioning taps, and defective flush systems in toilets/bathrooms. “Water supply disruptions are frequent, and even bottled water jars often fail to provide safe drinking water. There have also been instances of contaminated water flowing through potable water taps,” says a student protestor. In particular, poor conditions in women’s hostels has emerged as a major flashpoint during the protest. Women students allege widening disparities between residential facilities provided to male and women students. The men’s hostel reportedly contains 18 bunk beds for 40-50 students, while women’s hostels accommodate nearly 93 with 30-35 women sharing three toilets.

Moreover, protesters are also critical of excessive centralisation of administrative decision-making under Oxford (UK)-educated Vice Chancellor Sudhir Krishnaswamy. “Even relatively minor decisions such as switching on air-conditioning in classrooms requires approval from the VC. NLSIU urgently requires decentralisation and meaningful admin-students engagement,” says a disgruntled student.

Students accuse the administration of remaining unresponsive despite repeated complaints about infrastructure deficiencies. However, after the May 12 protests made media headlines in Bengaluru, Krishnaswamy has promised to address student grievances.

Established 40 years ago on a 23-acre campus in Bangalore, NLSIU is the first of 26 elite National Law Universities (NLUs) promoted by Central/state governments pursuant to second-generation legal education reforms proposed by the Bar Council of India in 1985. Admission into NLSIU and other NLUs is through a common highly competitive CLAT (Common Law Admission Test). In 2025, of the 75,000 school/college leavers who wrote CLAT, a mere 3,635 were admitted into the country’s 26 NLUs.

NLSIU is often the first choice of CLAT toppers because of its reputation for providing rigorous legal education and excellent post-graduation placements with starting salaries averaging Rs.16-18 lakh per annum. With NLSIU growing in reputation, the administration has always been under pressure to increase student intake. Evidently, even as student numbers spiralled, expansion of infrastructure in this wholly residential university has failed to keep pace — a common feature of most higher education institutions countrywide prompting a EW cover story ‘India’s academic slums’ two decades ago (2001) Currently, NLSIU hosts 1,355 students and 100 faculty on campus.

“NLSIU was built to accommodate 100 students. Over the years, student numbers have grown beyond 1,000 but residential and other support infrastructure has lagged far behind. The university has also added several certificate and diploma courses which has resulted in larger student inflows. It is appalling that a law school has come under criticism for gender discrimination — that there are fewer facilities for women and that male students are given preferential allotment of hostel rooms. NLSUI’s student protests are a wake-up call for the government to set up an apex national level institution to supervise law colleges across the country,” says Prof. A.S. Seetharamu, former professor of education at Institute of Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore.

Despite your correspondent bombarding the VC’s office with several emails and telephone calls, NLSIU failed to respond. According to insider sources, the institution is experiencing an acute funds crunch. The Karnataka state government has drastically reduced its annual maintenance grants to NLSIU (from Rs.2 crore to Rs.50 lakh) after it declined to reserve 25 percent of admissions for Karnataka domicile students. Consequently, it is dependent on student fees to finance the institution and upgrade its campus facilities.

Fees levied by this public university at Rs.4.5-5 lakh per year for tuition, board and lodging are too modest and cannot be raised without permission from the Central/state governments. In contrast, fees at the private top-ranked superbly equipped Jindal Global Law School range between Rs.10.5-11.5 lakh per annum.

“Anytime NLSIU wants to raise fees, students protest. Students need to understand that they can’t have it both ways. If they want world-class legal education and contemporary residential facilities, they have to take loans and pay higher fees. The lesson of India’s defunct higher education system is that excellent education can’t be availed cheaply,” says a former faculty member who preferred to remain anonymous.

The NLSIU students protest has thrown a harsh overdue spotlight on a wider challenge confronting India’s top-ranked public institutions including the 23 IITs where campus infrastructure is ageing and student living conditions are deteriorating. If students want world-class academic standards, they need to pay higher fees.