Finally, National Law University to be set up in Uttan

After a series of controversies and months of land hunt across Mumbai, Maharashtra's first National Law University (NLU) is all set to get its permanent campus in Uttan – a coastal town in Mira-Bhayander corporation area.

The plot is adjacent to the Maharashtra Judicial Academy in Uttan. Less than a year old NLU is currently operating from a few rented rooms at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Deonar, ever since it was "forced" to vacate the Ismail Yusuf (IY) College in Jogeshwari after stiff opposition from a few Muslim organisations.

Dr Sanjay Chahande, principal secretary of the Higher and Technical Education Department, confirmed the development. "We are currently in the process of finalising the land deal at Uttan," he said. He refused to elaborate any further, saying that the issue has already been "dragged in too much controversy".

dna, in a series of reports, had highlighted the issue earlier this year. The reports had moved TISS director S Parasuraman so much that he had offered to lend some rooms at his own campus, so that NLU could start the admission process for academic session 2015-16. This helped NLU to organise a nationwide test and conduct admissions in May.

Two years ago, the then Congress-NCP government had proposed to house NLU at Uttan. The university started taking a concrete shape last year, when the a vice-chancellor was appointed. "At the time, not only judiciary, but NLU vice-chancellor BP Panda had also opposed the Uttan proposal, citing its distance from the city," said sources.

The government then housed the varsity temporarily at the state-run IY College. Later, it sought to allot a piece of unused land of the college to law University. The development led to litigations and protests by some Muslim organisations, which claimed that the land was given by the Muslim philanthropist for welfare of the community.

The government gave in to the pressure and withdrew its proposal, citing "technical reasons". Due to pressure from the locals and Muslim organisations, the NLU officials then decided to vacate the IY college and went to TISS on a rental basis.

After the controversies, the government sought to find a place at Kalina campus of Mumbai University also, and then at Gorai, but nothing worked out. It then went back to original plan of Uttan. Interestingly, the VC has also agreed to the Uttan campus now, as he was reportedly told that he can't dictate terms and must try to understand the government's constraints. When contacted, Panda said, "We are fine with the Uttan land. It wasn't offered to us earlier, so there is no question of a refusal."