Students at the University of Jammu are in their ninth consecutive day of protest, demanding a rollback of the fee structure announced for the academic year 2026-27.

Among the participants are students from the University's law programmes, who say fees for new admissions have risen to levels that many students from ordinary families cannot afford.

The dispute has been active for almost a year. According to a student who participated in an earlier round of protests, the Law Department issued a fee notice in 2025 placing fees for the three-year LL.B. programme at approximately ₹17,000 annually. When the basis for this increase was questioned by students, they were told that the fee notification contained an error and that the amount was reduced by roughly ₹1,000. They were also assured that the fees would not be increased the following semester.

However, when the new academic session began, students found that new admissions to the LL.B. programme were being charged about ₹20,000, and those in the 5-year B.A.LL.B. programme approximately ₹50,000.

Amit Sadotra, a second-year LL.B. student, said that the burden falls most heavily on students from ordinary families.

"Our issue was that anybody from an ordinary family will not be able to afford this," he told Bar & Bench.

Students have further pointed out that despite Jammu University and Kashmir University being established under the same statute, the two institutions charge starkly different fees. When they checked Kashmir University's fee structure, they found that both the 3-year LL.B. and 5-year B.A.LL.B. programmes were available there at approximately ₹12,000 per year.

When students raised this disparity with the administration, they were told that Jammu University had invested in infrastructure and were asked to visit the Kashmir University campus and judge for themselves, according to a student present at that exchange. The students did so.

"When we checked, we found that their campus was better, their institute ranking was better, we were behind in infrastructure," a student said.

Nikhil Singh, another student in the 3-year LL.B. programme, said,

"Humne 8 dino se protest chalaya hai. Humari koshish hai ki hum is soye hue prashashan ki aankhein khol sake, inke kaan khol sake, aur inko aam chhataron ki awaaz bata sake," he said. (We have been protesting for 8 days. Our effort is to open the eyes of this sleeping administration, to open their ears and to make them hear the voice of ordinary students.)

He added that the students were not agitating only for themselves.

"This is not only for us but also for future students of the University," he said.