Maharashtra National Law University, Mumbai's 1st Foundation Day Celebration

Mumbai, October 10, 2015: Maharashtra National Law University Mumbai (MNLU) today celebrated its 1st Foundation Day Celebration at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). The celebration was graced by Shri. Devendra Fadnavis Hon’ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra and Shri. Vinod Tawde Hon’ble Minister of Higher & Technical Education.

MNLU is the first law university for the State of Maharashtra, and is currently offering courses such as BA, LL.B Hons. Five year integrated program and one year LL.M (Legal Pedagogy and Research) program. The university has received a very positive response of around 3000 applications for its opening batch. The classes for this batch are already under way.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri. Devendra Fadnavis Hon’ble Chief of Maharashtra said; “It was always a dream for our government that we should have institutes of national repute for imparting legal education and the government decided to have 3 such institutions at Mumbai, Aurangabad and Nagpur. I am happy that we could start the first one at Mumbai.”

He further announced that the Government of Maharashtra is going to start an International Arbitration Centre in Mumbai as there is a huge scope for it, as most global companies have their presence here. While referring to students he added, “MNLU has offered you an opportunity to be part of a mechanism which caters to the youth of India and I am sure you will use it to the fullest.”

MNLU is currently housed and is temporarily being operated from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) campus until an independent and new campus for “Maharashtra National Law University Mumbai”. The MNLU students have been offered the same facilities as TISS students. The students also have access to TISS library for their research/study purposes.

Shri. Vinod Tawde Hon’ble Minister of Higher & Technical Education expressed his desire that MNLU should include certain other novel disciplines such as International Maritime law and International Humanitarian law. He also assured the students that MNLU will celebrate its next Foundation Day at its own campus and congratulated them on the launch of its maiden newsletter, “NYUSURETA” (means newsletter in Japanese).

“Starting of a new campus was a challenge. Understanding our concerns and challenges, the support offered by The Govt of Maharashtra and TISS has helped MNLU become operational quickly and has also created a healthy environment for students to pursue their courses. As a pioneer law university in the state of Maharashtra NLU will look forward to produce and groom the talent” said Prof. (Dr.) Bhavani Prasad Panda, Vice Chancellor, Maharashtra National Law University

Speaking on MNLU and TISS association, Dr S Parasuraman, Director, TISS said “We welcome MNLU, the presence of university at the campus will encourage dialogue/ conversations and engagement amongst students from both institutes and also offer opportunity to learn from each other.”He further added that “In a country like India, optimum utilization of resources (sharing attitude) at educational institutes will not only be beneficial to students but also contribute in growth of the economy as a whole.”

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TheWitnessStand: Life @ Amity Law School Delhi

                 It’s been less than a month since college has begun. I am still in the process of getting accustomed to the routine, the people and the culture. But at the same time, when you enter as a fresher, you notice certain peculiar characteristics about the college that you would get so used to in 5 years that it would hardly stand out anymore. For every aspiring lawyer, who doesn’t want to leave Delhi, Amity Law School Delhi is usually their second best option (after NLU Delhi of course). The part that bothers most of the students at ALSD is the stigma attached with the word “Amity”.Almost everyone is aware of the fact that Amity has no procedure to grand a child admission and takes anyone in who is willing to pay the high fee.  It takes a lot of effort for most of us to explain how ALSD is different from the regular Amity Law School Noida. 

We have to explain that we had to go through a competitive examination to get through the college we are in and the only thing that ALSD shares with Amity is its building.  But at the same time, we are lucky enough to share all the facilities and fancy infrastructure that the regular amity provides. Mainly AIR CONDITIONING!! And at the fee of a central university. Situated in some corner of Noida, the 60 acre campus of Amity University is not hard to miss. Its huge red bricked buildings are even visible from an airplane. While everyone raves about the Amity campus, I wasn’t too happy. I crave natural beauty and greenery. Amity University is a concrete jungle! The few trees that they have planted, seem so artificially placed in between the tiled floor. Having a 60 acre campus, one thing is fairly certain. You have to walk. A lot. The walk becomes worse thanks to the Delhi heat. It is common to see people carrying umbrellas with them (at least the girls) , or covering up their entire face with their scarf. In the first week of college, the campus seemed like a maze. Usfreshers seemed like lost tourists in a foreign land asking people where which block or gate is. It is a great relief to enter our bloc i.e. F-2. Ever building at Amity is like an enigma. At the basement of our building itself, we have a canteen, a restaurant ( Wallstreet, and a gaming zone called Arcadia. Since there is not much outside the campus,once we are done with classes we go and chill in the Arcadia. Arcadia is not exclusively for our building, but it’s famous throughout Amity. You can play Pool/Snooker/Billiards (still don’t know the difference), air hockey, foosball, videogames, and even do bowling. In fact the even have a carom and ludo table. If you aren’t interested in any of that you have an eatery inside the Arcadia itself. We are still in the process of exploring all the cafeterias below each building. Its just disappointing to the non-vegetarians. There is no non-veg served on campus. However, right outside gate 2A you have various stalls where you get non- veg and all sorts of rolls, momos, and maggi .Just one of these buildings in the Amity Campus is the Central Library. It is a huge two storey building which even has escalators installed. It has books covering most of the subjects. Except well Law. For Law books we have our own small library in our own building.

The first few days of college were awkward. Everyone was just getting familiar with one another and being overly sweet knowing that they’d be spending the next 5 years of their lives with each other. It is hard to imagine that I would be 23 by the time I pass out. As far as the crowd is concerned it is not that diverse since IP reserves 85% of their seats for Delhites. Some of the people even ended up finding people with mutual friends. Some of them were shocked when their myth of what college would be like was broken. Many had the image of college coming straight out of a karanjohar movie where people would bunk and party. I thankfully did not have such perceptions since I knew it was Law School. Ive had friends who’ve completed law school in 8 years. I had been guided by them to not take the attendance that lightly. It is compulsory to have a minimum of 75% attendance in every subject. Attendance is the only thing that is keeping people in class. Hardly anyone has bunked as yet. In fact, attendance is the best threat/incentive a teacher can give. It is taken in every class. In a day we usually have maximum 4-5 classes. Apart from that on a few days we have our PSDA (Personal Skill Development Activity ) class on which we are marked. Every morning, there is a huge crowd around the bulletin board on which a new daily schedule of classes is put up. While us first years have a hard time deciphering the initials of the teachers’ names. In class, most of the friend groups formed have started to solidify. Since I enjoy most of my subjects, classes actually seem interesting. We often deviate from the main crux of what we are studying and end up having these intense debates in class which I thoroughly enjoy.

This year onwards, they have started a new activity known as the Mentor-Mentee Program where you have numerous activities to choose from, and at the end of it achieve the established goal. You also have various societies (debate, dance, and music, moot court) to choose from. We start mooting from first year itself. The seniors are pretty enthusiastic about mooting and most of them are extremely helpful. From what I’ve heard, the first moot of ours (which would be held in October) would not be that serious. It would be more of ragging where seniors would grill you and make you do weird antics. It has been an old tradition which our seniors choose to carry forward and hopefully we will too.

Amity Law School Delhi is our second home. More than half of our day is spent in here. From what seemed like ‘school for 5 more years’, it’s getting better as the days pass. I guess I’d have more to say once I’m done with this 5 year long journey.

About The Author:

Ria Khanna, is a first year BA LLB student at Amity Law School, Delhi. She is an Air Force kid and has lived practically out of bags half her life. She loves a good conversation and tea.

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