Supreme Court Asks NLU Consortium If Students Who Applied To NLU-Tripura For 2023-24 Can Be Accommodated

The Supreme Court recently asked the Consortium of the National Law Universities if the NLUs could accommodate students who had applied for admission in the National Law University Tripura for the academic year 2023-24.

The Court noted with dismay that the NLU Tripura could not commence its operations for the academic year 2022-23 due to lack of facilities and teachers and all the 90 students who had taken admission were given refund of the fees. It described this state of affairs "unsatisfactory situation".

In the next academic year 2023-24, with the availability of facilities, NLU Tripura carried out fresh admission process. However, the admission process was not conducted under the Common Law Admission Test, as NLU Tripura will be covered under CLAT only from the next academic year (2024-25).

The Court was told that there are candidates who got admission in other NLUs but due to proximity did not want to go to the other Institutes.

In this background, with respect to the candidates who have been left out and are desirous of seeking admission, the Court asked Senior Advocate Mr. Maninder Singh, appearing on behalf of the Consortium, whether those students can be accommodated for admission of 2023-2024 provided that they show that they had got admission.

At this, Singh sought short accommodation to obtain requisite instructions. The Court accordingly listed the matter on 16th October, 2023.

The matter was  heard by a Division Bench, comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sudhanshu Dhulia.

Previously, the Court impleaded Bar Council of India (BCI) as a party to the present proceedings on the basis of the fact that it had granted recognition to NLU, Tripura even though it does not seem to have faculty and infrastructure in place.

The writ petition was filed by nineteen students who challenged the NLU Tripura's decision to cancel the 2022-2023 admissions.

The petitioners were represented by Neeraj Shekhar AoR, Advocates Dr.Sumit Kumar, Chandra Pratap, Karan Tomar.

Case Title: Somya Sanjay And Ors. v. National Law University Tripura Agartala And Ors. WP(C) No. 41/2023

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