Nine IDIA Scholars make it to NLUs in first list

Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access to legal education (IDIA) has produced as many as nine scholars who have made it to national law universities thus far. Eight students cleared CLAT 2017 in the first list, whereas one student has secured admission at NLU Delhi after clearing AILET 2017.

Among the successful scholars to have cleared CLAT in the first list is Anoop Kumar, a visually impaired student hailing from Gardih in Jharkhand. He was ranked ninth in the Specially Abled Persons category, and has hence secured admission at WBNUJS, Kolkata.

Mukesh Seju from Rajasthan secured the eighth rank in the Scheduled Caste category, thereby getting into NLSIU Bangalore. Ramavath Swarna Latha from Telangana secured a rank of 87 in the Scheduled Tribe category, and got a seat at NLU Odisha.

Deepti Shinde from Bhopal got a rank of 87 in the Scheduled Caste category and has qualified for admission to NLIU Bhopal. Aritra Mondal got a Scheduled Caste category rank of 92 and secured admission in GNLU, Gandhinagar. Aritra was admitted to WBNUJS Kolkata back in 2015; unfortunately, he wasn’t able to clear his board examinations as a result of his father’s demise.

Bhatt Raj from Rajasthan also made it to GNLU after securing a Scheduled Caste category rank of 103. Banoth Sundarshyam from Telangana made it to NLU Jodhpur after securing a rank of 39 in the Scheduled Tribe category. Meraka Mani from Andhra Pradesh secured admission at DSNLU, Visakhapatnam after getting a Scheduled Caste category rank of 575.

In an email, IDIA Managing Trustee Prof Shamnad Basheer was quoted as saying,

“Indeed, we cannot ask for anything better than to bask in their glory. Unfortunately, they cannot realise their dreams unless we whip up the moolah. Legal education does not come cheap these days; and the best of law schools cost around 3 lakhs a year (15 lakhs for a 5 year education). Very few law schools (notably NLS, Bangalore, NLU Delhi, NUJS and Nirma) provide us fee concessions and waivers.

We have to therefore arrange a sizeable amount of money to ensure that our scholars are admitted to these law schools well in time. Any help, big or small, is greatly appreciated.”

To contribute, visit the IDIA website here.

Last year, eight IDIA scholars made it to various NLUs after the first allotment list.