National Law School of India University

National Law School of India UniversityThe National Law School of India University (NLSIU) is a institution constituted by the Karnataka Legislative Assembly for undergraduate and graduate legal education in India. It was the first ever National Law University to be established. By popular estimates, the school consistently ranks as the most prestigious law school in India.[1] Located in Bangalore, NLSIU was established by a statute passed by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Karnataka.[2] The school was officially founded on August 29, 1987. The statute provides that the Chief Justice of India serves as the school's Chancellor. The Vice-Chancellor, currently R.Venkata.Rao, serves as the school's chief administrator.
In 1987, NLSIU was established under the stewardship of its founder, then Vice-Chancellor N. R. Madhava Menon. The University has since had four more Vice-Chancellors, namely N. L. Mitra, A. Jayagovind, G. Mohan Gopal, and incumbent R. Venkata Rao, who took over in 2009. The first batch of law students joined the school's undergraduate program on July 1, 1988. Interestingly, classes commenced before the school's buildings had been fully constructed; thus, NLSIU actually began instruction at the premises of the Central College of Bangalore University and continued therein until November 1991. The school then formally moved to its present-day location in Nagarbhavi, a suburb of Bangalore.
Admissions to NLSIU were originally done on the basis of a separate entrance exam conducted by the University itself. After a Supreme Court ruling directing that all law entrance examinations must be clubbed together, the Common Law Admission Test(CLAT) was introduced in 2008. The first CLAT was conducted by NLSIU. As of now, all admissions in NLSIU, for both undergraduate and postgraduate programs are made on the basis of performance in the CLAT. In 2012, for the Undergraduate CLAT, a total of 26000 students contested for a mere 65 seats, making the examination one of the most competitive in India.

Notes|Edit