Unacceptable That National Law University Jodhpur Has Only Contractual Teachers; Can't Expect Excellence Without Regular Staff : Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has expressed serious concerns at the National Law University, Jodhpur, operating only with contractual teachers. "To say the least, this is unacceptable and undesirable", the Court observed.

The Court noted that as per the regulations of the University Grants Commission, only 10 percent of the staff can be contractual staff. The Court was told that the NLU's regulations were recently amended to provide for 50 per cent permanent staff and 50 per cent contractual. However, even this has not been implemented.

The Court further noted that the University has no Vice Chancellor at the moment and that Registrar is also a contractual staff.

The University's explanation that it is a self-financing institution without any government aid did not find favour with the Court.

"The point, however, remains that these are supposed to be institutions of excellence and you cannot expect excellence in institutions where there is constant inflow and outflow of teaching staff because they are contractual in character. It is time to remedy the position", observed the bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia.

The bench said that it would prefer the NLU remedying the situation itself rather than the Court interfering. Therefore, the Court granted adjournment, after the University's counsel Senior Advocate Dhruv Mehta sought short time to "appropriately advice the clients".

The matter will be considered next on October 31, 2023. 

The bench was hearing a Special Leave Petition filed by the NLU-J in 2019 against a judgment of the division bench of the Rajasthan High Court which struck down some of its service regulations. The High Court had also expressed concerns at the University employing contractual staff.

"There is no National or International University involved in imparting quality Law education, which has not employed regular teaching faculties and simply thriving on contractual teachers or adhoc teachers. Some of the foreign Universities imparting best Law education in the world are not only maintaining teacher and student ratio but employing regular teaching faculty to ensure best results", the High Court had observed.

Case Title : The National Law University Jodhpur v. Prashant Mehta & Ors | Special Leave to Appeal (C) No(s). 13762- 13764/2019

Citation : 2023 LiveLaw (SC) 782

Click here to read the order