After the furore created by the delay in his appointment, Prof Sudhir Krishnaswamy has finally been appointed as the new Vice-Chancellor of National Law School of India University, Bangalore (NLSIU).
Prof Sudhir Krishnaswamy is an alumnus of the country’s oldest national law university.
The decision to appoint Prof Krishnaswamy was taken back in August. The new VC was selected by the Executive Council of NLSIU, pursuant to the recommendation made by a Committee constituted for this purpose. The Committee was headed by Supreme Court judge, Justice SA Bobde.
However, Prof Krishnaswamy’s appointment was delayed for over 50 days.
Protests against the non-appointment of Prof Sudhir Krishnaswamy as the next VC of NLSIU began last week, when students decided to boycott classes. The sit-in protest was held in light of information that there was likely to be a change in the composition of the Executive Council (EC) of NLSIU, which would, in turn, have a bearing on the appointment of a new Vice-Chancellor.
The protests continued into Saturday when the Registrar and the Vice-Chancellor (FAC) Prof MK Ramesh addressed the students, who put forth certain questions to the administration. As the deadlock continued, students decided to boycott their exams which had been scheduled to start on Monday.
The Student Bar Association (SBA) had earlier alleged that the Registrar was responsible for the delay of Prof Krishnaswamy’s appointment.
However, the protests were called off after Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justice SA Bobde offered some clarity as to the appointment of the new Vice-Chancellor of the University. It was made clear that only a formal decision as to Prof Krishnaswamy’s appointment was to be taken by CJI Ranjan Gogoi (who is the Chancellor of the University).
Prof Krishnaswamy graduated in BA LLB from NLSIU in 1998. He has been a Teaching Fellow in Law at the Pembroke College at Oxford University, an Assistant Professor at NLSIU, and a Professor at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata. More recently, he was a faculty at the Azim Premji University in Bangalore.
He is also the co-founder of Centre for Law & Policy Research (CLPR), a research organisation based in Bangalore.