Bar Council Of India Moves Karnataka HC Challenging 25% Domicile Reservation In NLSIU [Read Petition]

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has moved the Karnataka High Court seeking to declare that the National Law School of India (Amendment) Act, 2020, which permits 25 percent horizontal domicile reservation for students of Karnataka, as ultra vires to the Constitution of India.

The petition claims that without prior consultation of the BCI, the State has enacted the amendment to the Act, providing for horizontal domicile reservation across General, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes categories. Based on this, the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) has issued a revised notification on seat matrix and provided horizontally 25 percent reservation for students of Karnataka and 5 percent concession on the general merit cut off score.

The petition further states that the state that this amendment has nullified the judgement of the Karnataka High Court in the case of Lokasha vs Convener, Common Law Admission Test (CLAT-2009).

Further, it is said that the State of Karnataka has not provided domicile reservation in its own State Law University, thus subjecting NLSIU to such hostile discrimination. It is also said that the amended Act is a serious interference and infringement into the statutory functioning of the petitioner (BCI).

The petition argues that from the year 1996 to 2017, NLSIU has produced 20 Rhodes scholars, out of those seven are from Karnataka. The true national character of the institution is manifest not just in its statutory declared objectives but in practice and its governance structure.

 In March, the Karnataka State Assembly passed the National Law School Of India (Amendment) Act, 2020, which received the Karnataka Governor's assent on May 4. As per this amendment, NLSIU should reserve horizontally twenty-five percent of seats for 'students of Karnataka'.

The amendment inserts the following proviso in Section 4 of the National Law School of India Act :- "Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act and the regulations made thereunder, the school shall reserve horizontally twenty-five percent of seats for students of Karnataka."

As per the explanation of this section, "student of Karnataka" means a student who has studied in any one of the recognized educational institutions in the State for a period of not less than ten years preceding to the qualifying examination."

The plea also prays for setting aside the revised seat matrix for BA LLB (Hons) and LLM Programmes issued by NLSIU by issuing the notification dated August 4.

Two other petitions filed by individuals raising the same challenge will be heard on August 13, by a bench headed by Justice Krishna Dixit.

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