The Supreme Court on Friday declined to stay the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) Bangalore's decision to horizontally reserve 25 percent of seats for students domiciled in Karnataka.
A bench of Justices L. Nageswara Rao and Ravindra Bhat refused the stay on NLSIU decision and listed the matter for further hearing on August 2.
The Karnataka government has moved the top court challenging the Karnataka High Court judgment which had struck down the 25 percent domicile reservation introduced at the university.
Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for a petitioner, sought a stay on the NLSIU notification giving effect to the reservation policy. After hearing arguments in the matter, the bench refused to stay the notification. Senior advocate Sajan Poovayya represented NLSIU in the matter.
The university, earlier this week, announced the implementation of the domicile reservation from the academic year 2021-22, as part of its inclusion and expansion plan approved in April/May this year.
High Court Verdict
The Karnataka High Court, in September last year, had quashed the NLSIU Amendment Act, 2020, through which 25 percent reservation was introduced for students domiciled in the state, holding that it was ultra vires and contrary to the provisions of the parent NLSIU Act. The court had said that state government did not have the power to introduce domicile reservation at the university.
The state government has challenged this, claiming that the High Court erred in observing that NLSIU is not a state institution and thus, not within its control.
NLSIU admission
As per the revised notification of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) Bengaluru, "candidates who have studied for not less than 10 years in a recognised educational institution in Karnataka shall be eligible to be considered as Karnataka students."
The admissin criteria under the reservation is applicable for both their BA, LLB (Hons) programme and LLM programme, and the eligible candidates are advised to update the information in their CLAT 2021 application, and submit study certificates at the time of admission.
It entails 30 out of 120 seats under the BA, LLB (Hons) and 13 out of 50 seats under the LLM programme reserved for Karnataka students. The university currently has 660 students on their on-campus programme, and they propose to increase to 2,200 by 2028-2029.
(With inputs from IANS)
