Outlook’s Top 20 Law Schools: GNLU in third after NLSIU, NALSAR

It is another year, and yet another list of the “best” law colleges in the country has been released, this time, by Outlook magazine..What has not changed is that this year’s list paints a fairly inaccurate picture of the state of legal education in India. This can be seen in the fact that some of the most reputed law schools have found no mention..The list, made in collaboration with market research company Drshti, was based on five parameters – selection process, academic excellence, personality development, infrastructure and placements..One of the surprises is that GNLU, Gandhinagar has found itself in third place. ILS Pune is in fourth, followed by the relatively unheard of New Law College, Pune in fifth. Two other NLUs – HNLU, Raipur and NLU Odisha – find mention in 7th and 18th positions respectively. Amity Law School, Delhi is in tenth..Here is the list of the top 20 law schools:.Rank in 2016Rank in 2015Institute11NLSIU, Bangalore22NALSAR, Hyderabad36GNLU, Gandhinagar45ILS, Pune59New Law College, Pune610Faculty of Law, (Jamia Milia) Delhi711HNLU, Raipur812Faculty of Law (Banaras University)914PG College of Law, Osmania University, Hyderabad1013Amity Law School, Delhi1116Institute of Law, NIRMA University, Ahmedabad1215MS Ramaiah College of Law, Bangalore1317Government Law College, Mumbai1418KIIT Law School, Bhubaneswar1519CMR Law College, Bangalore1620Manikchand Pahade Law College, Aurangabad1721IMS Law College, Noida18–NLU Odisha, Cuttack19–SDM Law College, Mangalore20–Amity Law School, Noida.To its credit, Outlook has listed NLSIU, Bangalore and NALSAR, Hyderabad as the top two law schools in the country. However, institutes like WBNUJS Kolkata, NLIU Bhopal, NLU Jodhpur et al. do not feature in the list. In fact, only four national law universities are mentioned..So what are the reasons behind this?.The Outlook website elaborates on the methodology adopted for arriving at these numbers. It is mentioned therein that an objective questionnaire was sent to institutes, who had download the same and respond to the questions online. The universities missing from the list could have quite simply chosen not to participate in the survey..However, to choose the best from the universities that did respond and label those as the best law schools in India is nothing short of misleading. Especially when the omissions are so glaring..Recently, India Today had released its top law school rankings, wherein NUJS, NLIU and NLU J were listed among the top “emerging” law schools..Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.