Within the law

Just a year old, the Dwarka National Law University is making its presence felt in the Capitals Vimal Chander Joshi Reports

National Law Universities (NLUs) are to legal education what IITs are to engineering studies. The NLU campus in Dwarka (Delhi) is not different from other law schools — barring its selection process. Admission is not through the CLAT (Common Law Admission Test) but a separate national-level entrance. Its popularity can be gauged from the fact that in the first year in 2008, NLU saw 7,000 applications for 80 seats.

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Known for: Its coveted NLU tag.

Programmes: BA, LLB (five-year programme); PG diploma in judging and court management; PG diploma in intellectual property rights and patent law.

Extracurricular activities: Despite being just a year old, NLU has a

number of societies in the making. “Since we are students of the

first batch, we take it as our responsibility to set up cultural

societies and students’ committees for our juniors. We have a lot

of scope to get creative,” says Gunjan Chawla, a second-year

student of the integrated law programme.
Recently, Chawla and her friends started a society called Agaaz,

which does philanthropic work. In just a month, about 50

volunteers have been roped in to teach children of construction

workers. They also plan to start an adult literacy programme for

women staying in slum clusters nearby and for the wives of

construction workers.
NLU students also take part in debates and sporting activities in

and outside the university.

Infrastructure: NLU scores a perfect 10 for its swank campus.

Fully residential, it will soon have separate accommodation for

men and women, who are at the moment sharing one hostel.

Once ready, both hostels will have a common room, facilities for

indoor games, television sets and a gym.
The library is also quite huge and has access to all the latest high

court and Supreme Court judgments.
No vehicles are allowed in the eco-friendly campus and instead of

electric heaters, solar heaters are used in hostel rooms.
NLU also has a specially-built moot courtroom to give students a

taste of court proceedings. A fully air-conditioned auditorium with

a capacity for over 650 people is also about to come up.

Found on campus: “I was studying in a private law college in

Noida. When I got to know that a national law university has come

up in Delhi, and has been set up by the same people who founded

the prestigious Nalsar University, I applied here. Even though it led

to my wasting a year, I think it was worth it,” says Devna Arora, a

second-year student of the five-year law programme.

factfile
National Law University (NLU) Dwarka, is one of the 14 Indian law

universities. It came up in 2008 and added another star to brand

Delhi, known for its prestigious universitites. It is headed by Dr

Ranbir Singh, vice chancellor, and Dr Ghanshyam Singh, registrar

— both were involved with the success story of the Nalsar Law

School, Hyderabad, for 10 years from the years 1998 to 2008.

This university is different from other NLUs in one respect. While

others admit students who have passed the CLAT, NLU Dwarka

holds a separate entrance test

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“We are not allowed to move out of the hostel premises after 9 pm

and out of the campus after 6 pm. This is too much of a restriction

for both boys and girls. There should be some freedom when it

comes to hostel hours. Now we have to wait for weekends to go

back home when we can stay out till late,” says Hardeep Singh,

second year student of five-year law programme