At the same time, the proposal made by ILS for its private university status got no response from the state for several months despite completing several steps of the process last year, prompting the institute to file a petition in Bombay High Court. An interim order was issued on Tuesday, June 25.

Private status

ILS Law College, the state’s premier law institute that regularly ranks among the nation’s top ten, was founded by India Law Society on June 20, 1924. At present, ILS is affiliated to Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU).

Designing new courses, establishing new assessment systems, having lesser constraints over national and international collaborations and more administrative freedom have been some of the reasons given by the institute for pursuing private university status.

ILS submitted a detailed project report (DPR) to the Department of Higher and Technical Education for a proposed ILS University on November 30, 2022.

In February 2023, ILS made a detailed presentation to the government’s scrutiny committee and on June 27, 2023, a Letter of Intent valid for a year was issued seeking compliance on issues raised by the committee. ILS submitted this letter of compliance and an inspection committee visited the institute on July 22.

Point of contention

In 1995, ILS received the grant-in-aid scheme of the government due to which it became possible to offer academic courses and other facilities at much lesser fees. With private university status, this will change.

The governing council of ILS made a resolution regarding existing permanent teaching and non-teaching employees covered under the grant-in-aid pattern and un-sided pattern on July 3, 2023. Future increments, provident fund and welfare schemes would be according to the rules. of the proposed ILS university, the resolution stated.

After inspection, the government committee made several comments in their following report which stated, “Before going for the establishment as a self financed university, the sponsoring body should take consent of all teaching and non-teaching staff and submit it to the state government. “

ILS in its communication with DHE acknowledged that 9/13 permanent staffers working under the grant-in-aid scheme, both teaching and non-teaching, did not give their consent to join the proposed ILS university. One of the four who consented later withdrew their consent while one of the non-consenting staff members took voluntary retirement.

The staff’s refusal to waive off their grant-in-aid services to Government of Maharashtra dated July 31 was attached by ILS in a petition to the High Court.

In August, eight of these staff members wrote to the Principal Secretary of Higher and Technical Education of the state government expressing concern and fear for their career and future in legal education. They alleged that they had been summoned for a discussion with college authorities even after verbally communicating their refusal when individually asked by the principal secretary of ILS. In the letter, they reiterated their refusal to consent to join the proposed university.

In September 2023, ILS passed another resolution which stated that increments, gratuity and leave benefits would be offered to permanent employees “as per the existing rules of the Government of Maharashtra” were they to join the proposed ILS University.

A letter was sent to the Governor requesting intervention. The matter was even taken to the education minister and a meeting was held with ILS authorities at his residence in February this year. As per ILS’s petition, the minister said the ‘absorption of non-consenting staff would not be an issue’.

Overall concerns

The concerns, however, are not only limited to the staff and their employment terms.

A student of ILS who did not wish to be named, said, “Students are against ILS becoming a private university for several reasons, but mainly because it will lead to a multiple fee hike. As it is, fees are between Rs 35,000 and RS 40,000 which is already not so affordable for students coming from across Maharashtra, especially considering that ILS is currently aided by the state government. No student considers ILS worth it at the current fee, but at least it provides opportunities to people from humble backgrounds because of its brand value. If ILS becomes private, then all these benefits will be gone.”

The fees at ILS for open category students is between Rs 40,000 and Rs 45,000 and for other categories it is between Rs 35,000 and Rs 40,000. For context, the total fee for any student in the Government Law College Mumbai does not exceed Rs 7,000 for a year except for unaided sections where it is Rs 12,200. Fees for aided sections of Bharti Vidyapeeth New Law College are Rs 22,000 a year for LLB students and less than Rs 39,000 for five-year programmes.

Another student said, “Affordable legal education is an important right, especially for marginalized people, privatizing ILS will deprive many of this benefit. Secondly, this will impact teaching, because without reservations, there will not be enough representation among the faculty. Thirdly, it remains doubtful that ILS will be a preferred choice for students with its higher fee, and this will put at risk the quality of education, facilities as well as staff.”

Current status

The petition stated that there was no response on the status of the proposal since September. While the LOI issued to ILS expired on June 27 this week, the court gave an interim order stating that the proposal should not be rejected on these grounds alone as there was no communication from the government to ILS, which the government also acknowledged.

Meanwhile, the chairperson and principal secretary of the governing council of ILS as well as principal of ILS Law College remained unavailable despite repeated attempts over call and text.

With the non-consenting staff standing by their refusal and no further directions from the state government on their proposal, the future plans of ILS Law College remain in question.

The petition has been listed for admission on August 12.