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Mangaluru: On June 3, The Wire published a detailed report on the systematic exclusion of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and other marginalised students from the Maharashtra National Law University (MNLU), Nagpur’s PhD programme. A day later, the university issued a new notification – an exclusive drive to take students from communities it has been excluding year after year. The notification mentioned 19 seats, allocated to students falling under different marginalised subgroups. While on the face of it, it appears that the university is trying to correct enduring wrongs, the new notification, in reality, is more violative than ever.

Last year, the university advertised 35 PhD seats. Of these, 22 students, all belonging to the unreserved (Savarna) category, were selected. Among the reserved categories, only three OBC candidates (against seven earmarked seats) and one candidate from the Nomadic community (against three seats) secured admission. In all, the university admitted 25 students, while ten seats were left vacant.

With the new advertisement coming into effect, the total number of seats has increased to 44. There is no clarity whether the university plans to fill the 10 vacant seats. As per........

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