Delhi High Court dismisses petition challenging NLU Delhi’s fee structure, hostel regulations

On January 2, 2014 Justice Manmohan dismissed a petition filed by a law student against the National Law University, Delhi (NLU Delhi). In his petition, Pulkit Khurana had questioned the residential nature of the five year BA LLB (Hons) course. The writ petition had also sought a re-examination of the fees charged by NLU Delhi for the five-year course..Khurana had argued that the residential nature of the course was not only “financially onerous” but also in contravention of the directives of the Bar Council of India. Dismissing this contention in a 3-page judgment, J. Manmohan observed that,.“.. this Court is of the view that there is no legal bar in setting up a residential university. In fact, it has been left to the discretion of the respondent-University to decide as to whether it wants to have a residential programme for law course or not.…[The] petitioner has the option to choose between a residential university and a university that offers only a LL.B. day course. But in the opinion of this Court, it is for the university to choose as to whether it wants to offer a residential course or a non-residential LL.B. course. Petitioner as a law student cannot dictate terms to the university.”.As for the argument against the quantum of fees charged by NLU Delhi, the Single Bench held that there was no basis for such an argument. It also held that.“The comparison between an old engineering college and a new university college that has recently been set up is just like comparing apples and oranges.”.Khurana was represented by Senior Advocate Mukul Gupta along with advocates Vibhor Garg and Suvarna Kashyap..While the question on the fee structure of NLU Delhi may have been dismissed, the fact remains that the fees charged by national law universities such as the one in Delhi are on the increase. As indicated in our article last year, the average fees charged by the 14 National Law Universities is more than a lakh and a half per year. Thus, a five-year course would entail a minimum expenditure of Rs. 9 lakhs..(Text of the judgment below).(Image provided by NLU Delhi)