Students at Dr Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University (RMLNLU), Lucknow staged a protest on May 27 over a range of grievances that have allegedly been building for months.
Among all the concerns raised, the University's absence from the Bar Council of India's (BCI) list of approved Centres of Legal Education (CLEs) is most glaring. Under Section 24 of the Advocates Act, a law degree from an institution without BCI recognition is not valid for enrolment as an advocate.
Bar & Bench checked the BCI's published list of approved CLEs and found RMLNLU absent. The University's Vice-Chancellor (VC) and Registrar did not respond to emails seeking clarification on the recognition status. Attempts to reach the VC by phone were also unsuccessful.
Students had submitted a formal written memorandum to the VC on May 26, the day before the protest, raising their concerns. They said that the demonstration was not spontaneous but was a result of concerns not receiving a meaningful response over the course of the academic year.
One of the complaints concerns the University's revised academic calendar. Under the earlier structure, students had a full-month window in December to complete internships, which law firms were willing to accommodate. The revised calendar replaced this within a December 17 to January 15 break. Students claim that firms simply do not structure internships around a mid-month to mid-month slot. The result is that students end up interning through January instead, missing roughly 15 days of classes.
According to the students, the calendar change impacts deeper at RMLNLU than it might elsewhere. This, owing to the fact that the university sees little to no campus recruitment from law firms or corporate legal departments. Internships are the only way students have to build professional networks and improve their employability, they said.
Another consequence of the calendar change is that the winter semester extends well into the month of May, when temperatures in Lucknow often cross 45 degrees celsius. The hostels have no air-conditioning and the girls' hostel is reportedly operating beyond its designed capacity. The student memorandum describes living and studying conditions during this period as "unsafe and untenable," and has asked the administration to begin a phased installation of air-conditioning, with additional fans and uninterrupted power supply as immediate stop-gap measures.
Furthermore, students have raised concerns about water quality, food standards, sanitation and the absence of routine pest control. They also have alleged that hostel regulations - including biometric systems and entry and exit timings - are reportedly being changed and enforced without prior written notice, resulting in inconsistent application. The memorandum also flags that hostel matrons are contacting parents without any formally notified basis for doing so.
On the academic side, students say that they are not told their attendance figures until it is too late to act. Mid-semester answer scripts, once evaluated, are allegedly not returned, leaving students unable to assess where they stand before final examinations. Library access is curtailed during examination season and the summer, the two periods when they need it most, students said.
A meeting between student representatives and the administration was held after the protest. 4 days on, no minutes of that meeting had been shared with the student body. Students say that they do not know what was discussed, what the administration agreed to, or whether any deadlines were set.