Supreme Court: While hearing a civil writ petition challenging the cancellation of 2022-2023 admissions process by the National Law University, Tripura, (‘NLU’) the Division Bench of Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia, JJ. noted that the NLU did not function for the academic year 2022-2023 due to lack of facilities and teachers. The Court also noted that the required facilities for the fresh admissions for 2023-2024 admissions were ready.
The NLU had issued a notification on 19-12-2022, cancelling the selection process for the admission for academic year 2022-2023 on the ground of absence of domicile quota. The petitioner was seeking to quash the said notification. The NLU had submitted an affidavit stating that it was in the absence of the faculty and infrastructure that the admissions could not be carried out. Previously, the Court expressed its shock as to how the Bar Council of India had certified the NLU if there were no faculty or building.
The Court noted that candidates who were admitted were given a refund and for the 2023-2024 admissions the facilities were available and fresh admissions will be made by the Institute. However, the Court also said that the admissions by Common Law Admission Test (‘CLAT’) exam will be covered only from the year 2024-2025. The Court also noted that the NLU never kicked off for the academic year 2022-2023 and the Institute could not function due to lack of facilities and teachers. The Court said that the petitioners who had got admission in other NLUs but did not take up the admission due to proximity, can enclose a copy of their earlier admission and hand it over to the NLU within a period of five days for appropriate instructions.
The matter was further listed for hearing on 16-10-2023.
[Somya Sanjay v. National Law University, Tripura, 2023 SCC OnLine SC 1257, Order dated: 03-10-2023]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For the petitioner: Advocate on Record Neeraj Shekhar, Advocate Dr. Sumit Kumar, Advocate Chandra Pratap, Advocate Karan Tomar, Advocate Rakesh Kumar Singh, Advocate Somesh Dubey, Advocate Vijay Kumar Sharma, Advocate on Record Yadav Narender Singh
For the respondent: Senior Advocate Maninder Singh, Advocate on Record Shuvodeep Roy, Advocate Deepayan Dutta, Advocate on Record Pritha Srikumar, Advocate on Record Radhika Gautam
*Deeksha Dabas, Editorial Assistant has reported this brief.
