A complaint has been filed before the Bar Council of India (BCI) against the School of National Security and Law (SNSL) at Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU), Gandhinagar.
The August 31 complaint by a student addressed to BCI's secretary, joint secretaries and the Legal Education Committee alleges that all internal remedies have failed and that the law school is operating in "flagrant violation" of the BCI Rules of Legal Education, 2008.
SNSL is approved by BCI's Legal Education Committee and at present features in BCI's list of approved Centres of Legal Education (CLEs) for academic session 2026-27.
However, students have pointed out that in the December 2023 approval letter for academic sessions 2023-24 and 2024-25, the BCI had listed some conditions and RRU was required to file a notarised compliance affidavit within 6 weeks.
The conditions included recruiting full-time faculty with a minimum LL.M. qualification on UGC pay scales, shifting the law library into the School of Law building with at least ₹5 lakh in fresh reference material, upgrading the moot court with 3 crown chairs under a senior professor's supervision, setting up a legal aid clinic in collaboration with the district legal services authority and constructing additional classrooms with a minimum seating capacity of 60.
As per the student's complaint, most of these conditions remain unmet. The grievances include:
No full-time faculty: the entire teaching unit is on contract, with no professor or senior professor of law and no new recruitment.
No specialised faculty for Honours subjects, short of the 3 full-time teachers per subject BCI requires.
No dedicated classrooms: lectures held in the moot court hall and seminar hall, with two batches taught in "classrooms made of tin sheds".
No functioning law library: no textbooks, no updated AIR manual, no case law database
No collaboration with the district legal services authority. Legal aid clinic and pro bono services inoperative.
Moot court in poor condition, with no senior faculty or practising advocate oversight and no records kept.
The Director, Sunil Kavishwar, does not hold a law degree, against BCI norms requiring a senior law professor with a PhD.
Only one part-time faculty for management subjects; subjects allegedly changed without approval.
School renamed from School of National Security and Law (SNSL) to School of Criminal Law and Military Law (SCLML) without BCI approval.
The complaint asked the BCI and its Legal Education Committee to intervene and issue directions to protect the welfare and rights of law students.
"Our careers, our mental health, and our very faith in the legal system hang by a thread," the email said.