Professor V Vijayakumar to be appointed next Director of NLIU, Bhopal

NLSIU Professor, V Vijayakumar is expected to join as the next Director of the National Law Institute University (NLIU), Bhopal, as first reported by Legally India..Professor Vijayakumar served as faculty at Presidency College, Madras before joining the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore. He has also served as Registrar at NLSIU between 2005 and 2008. He was appointed Vice Chancellor of the Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University in 2010..Over the course of his career, he has been conferred various awards recognising academic and administrative contributions. He also has over 30 articles in national and international journals to his credit..This development puts to rest controversy that had reportedly threatened to erupt, following rumours that Allahabad University Professor BP Singh could be appointed to take over the post left vacant after the exit of controversial Director, Professor SS Singh..It was only last November that Prof Singh gave in to student demands calling for his ouster. The protest had built up over the alleged administrative apathy characteristic of his tenure at NLIU, in addition to specific instances of his having made casteist and sexist remarks against students..Following his exit, NLIU had issued the notification inviting nominees to the post of Director in February. This was after University Chancellor and Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, Hemant Gupta, directed that the process of appointing the new Director be expedited..However, earlier this month, students wrote to the Chancellor highlighting that the reported forerunner to the Director’s post, Professor BP Singh, was significantly less qualified than the other candidates. On his part however, Professor BP Singh had reportedly contested the claim that he was less qualified than other nominees..In the meanwhile, the long overdue report of the fact-finding committee tasked with looking into student grievances raised during last year’s protest, is yet to see the light of day. The committee had originally been expected to file its report December last year.