Rajya Sabha MP GC Chandrashekhar on Wednesday urged Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa to take measures to protect the interests of local students. This follows the Karnataka High Court striking down the amendment brought to the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) Act to provide 25 per cent reservation in the institution to those who studied in the state.

In a letter to the CM, he said a committee consisting of legal experts must be constituted immediately and the matter must be taken up in the Supreme Court to protect the interests of the students from Karnataka. “Only eight students from Karnataka got seats in NLSIU last year and five local students got admission in IIT Dharwad,” the MP stated.

He added that in such a situation the demand for 25 per cent reservation for local students was justified as that would help provide employment to local youth. There are 23 national law colleges in the country and  in most of them, seats are reserved for local students, he stated.

NALSAR Hyderabad has 20 per cent reservation, in NLU Bhopal, 26 out of 65 BA LLB seats are reserved for local students and NUJS Kolkata is adopting a system to reserve 30 per cent seats for local students from next academic year, the MP stated. Chandrashekhar said it is difficult for rural students to compete with those from cities as centralised entrance tests are held for national law colleges, IITs, IIMs and other such institutes.