State okays proposal to introduce 25% domicile reservation at NLU Odisha

A proposal to reserve 25% of the seats at the National Law University at Cuttack (NLU Odisha) for state domicile students has been approved by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, reports the Indian Express.

As per various reports, a release issued by the Chief Minister’s office has mentioned that the move will immensely benefit students from the state. Students from Odisha scoring 60% marks in their 12th examinations will be eligible for the reserved seats.

Speaking to Bar & Bench, Vice Chancellor of NLUO Prof. Srikrishna Deva Rao said that the proposal would have to be discussed after it is placed before the Executive Body of the University. If it is implemented, it is likely to take effect only after the next academic year i.e from the academic year 2019-2020.

The majority of NLUs have some form of state domicile reservation in place. Currently, the following NLUs offer horizontal reservation for domicile students: NALSAR (Telangana), NLIU (Madhya Pradesh), WBNUJS (West Bengal), HNLU (Chhattisgarh), GNLU (Gujarat), RGNUL (Punjab), NUSRL (Jharkhand), NUALS (Kerala), NLUJA (Assam), DSNLU (Andhra Pradesh), TNNLS (Tamil Nadu) and HPNLU (Himachal Pradesh).

RMNLU (Uttar Pradesh), CNLU (Bihar), and the three MNLUs at Mumbai, Nagpur and Aurangabad (Maharashtra) have seats reserved for backward communities in their respective states.

This development leaves NLU Jodhpur and NLU Delhi – which is not a part of the CLAT Universities – as the only two NLUs which do not have state domicile reservation.

Earlier this year, the student body of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) Bangalore had registered its strong objection to a move to introduce 50% domicile reservation, terming it a move that would dilute diversity and strike at the core of the ethos of the University.

Image Courtesy: NLU Odisha website