The establishment of the NLU Tripura is a right opportunity to revisit the legacy of the twenty-four NLUs which were established by the older generation of stalwarts of legal education.
Padma Shri Prof (Dr) Madhava Menon established the NLSIU in the year 1986 as its founding Director. In the year 1997, the National Law Institute University (NLIU) at Bhopal was established by noted Indian jurist VS Rekhi as the Director. The third NLU, NALSAR, was established at Hyderabad in the year 1998 by Prof Ranbir Singh. Thereafter, Prof Menon was blessed with another occasion to craft another exemplary NLU in Kolkata when he established the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS) in the year 1999. Around the same time, the fifth NLU was established in Jodhpur by Prof NL Mitra, who also served as the second Director of NLSIU.
In 2003, Dr Jose P Varghese laid the foundation of Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur as its first Vice-Chancellor, while Prof VS Mani was the founder Director of the Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar. Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University in Lucknow was established by Padma Bhushan Dr SS Katiyar, an Indian scientist. Prof Balraj Chauhan started the actual operation of the University as the first Vice-Chancellor. During the same time, the National University of Advanced Legal Studies (NUALS) was set up at Kochi by its first Vice-Chancellor Prof KN Chandrasekharan Pillai, a noted professor of criminal law.
In the year 2006, two new NLUs were set up. Prof Gurjeet Singh was the first Vice-Chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Patiala (Punjab) and Prof A Lakshminath was the founder Vice-Chancellor of Chankaya National Law University Patna. Damodaram National Law University, Visakhapatnam was established by Prof Y Satyanarayana as the founding Vice-Chancellor in the year 2008. The same year, Prof Ranbir Singh had set up National Law University, Delhi as the first Vice-Chancellor. A year later, Prof Faizan Mustafa was appointed as the first Vice-Chancellor of NLU Odisha and Prof Gurjeet Singh laid the foundation of the National Law University and Judicial Academy, Assam as its first Vice-Chancellor.
Source: Barandbench
