lawyer

Admission is made strictly on the basis of merit as assessed through Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) conducted each year. [ 2 ] The Undergraduate test paper covers the following subjects: (i) English including Comprehension (ii) General Knowledge/Current Affairs (iii) Elementary Mathematics(Numerical ability) (iv) Legal Aptitude Logical Reasoning.

The Post-graduate test paper covers the following subject areas:Law of Contracts, Law of Torts, Family Law, Criminal Law, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory. [ 3 ]

The Old HNLU building (Academic block)

Previously, the University ran from a classical heritage building adjacent to the Raj Bhawan in the heart of the city. From the academic session -, the University has started functioning in the newly constructed campus at village Uperwara, about 22 km from the City Campus. The sprawling new campus is built over 65 acres of land abutting a beautiful lake and is located in a serene and pollution free environment. The academic block consists of three-storied library with air conditioned reading hall and a fully air- conditioned computer lab equipped with 150 computers. The academic block also houses the State-of-the-art Moot Court Halls carefully designed to match the standards of the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India and the High Courts. The entire campus is Wi-Fi enabled.

The air-conditioned class rooms fitted with modern teaching aids such as DLP Projectors, Interactive Boards, etc. create quality academic environment. It also has a state-of art Conference Hall and an Aesthetically designed amphitheatre. The Halls of Residence at the new campus is constructed to provide single room accommodation to each student. [ 5 ]

HNLU has been established by the Government of Chattisgarh to attain among others, the following objectives:

• To advance and disseminate learning and knowledge of law and research and with a view to ensure its proper role in national development
• To develop among the students and research scholars a sense of responsibility to serve society in the field of law by developing skills in regard to advocacy, judicial and other legal services, legislation, law reforms and the like.
• To prepare and train lawyers of national and international repute with high moral and ethical values;
• To advance the professional education and also to provide adequate orientation and training to judicial officers and others who are involved in the administration of justice. [ 6 ]

From the year , admission to the UG and Maters programme of HNLU will be strictly based on the Common Law Admission Test, as per the Supreme Court directives. HNLU currently offers following courses :-

Total number of semesters: 10

Total number of courses: 50 (Five in each Semester)(excluding the internship and court room exercises).

Normally students are required to work 40– 45 hours in a week. Unless otherwise instructed by the Faculty all courses other than Honours courses in the first three years are taught courses having a self-learning and small research project/paper writing and presentation component in it. In a taught course one credit shall mean one class hour and ? to 1 hour self learning per week in normal condition. As such a 6-credit course means 6 ? to 7 hours work per week. Optional and compulsory law courses are first-grade mixed courses requiring 1-hour class with 1-hour self-study. As such, each such course with 6 credits would require 6 class hours and 6 class hours of self-study, i.e. 12 hours of work per week.

Honours course is a mixed course of research and teaching. Teaching in honours course is not expected to be more than 25% to 33% of the entire teaching learning system. In Honours course one credit shall mean one class hour and 2 to 3 research hours per week in normal condition. Therefore 10-credit honours course may mean 3 class hours and 7 research hours or as instructed by the faculty per week. Each semester programme is for 15–18 weeks programme.

Core Courses: 6 each with 8 credit points: Political Science (2 courses distributed in Political theory; Political Obligations and International Relations); Economics (1 Course in Economics and law); History (1 Course in History of Law and Institutions,); Psychology (1 Course) and Sociology (1 Course).

English: 2 courses, each course to have 6 credits. Long Law Courses: Four courses on Constitutional Law (2 courses) and Crime and Punishment (2 courses) each equal to 9 credits. Law courses: 26 courses

Compulsory Operational/Functional courses = 8 courses with 8 credit each in Moot court, Internship, Legal Aid and Rules of Courts (continuous process); Drafting and Pleading; Professional Ethics and Law relating to Legal Profession; Jurisprudence-I. Interpretation of Statutes; Civil Procedure; Criminal Procedure; Law of Evidence.

Compulsory Substantive law Courses = 18 courses with 8 credit each in Legal Method, Torts, Contract, Family Law I and II, Jurisprudence II, Administrative Law, Company Law I and II, Property Law, Labour Law I and II, Public International Law, Law and Agriculture, Private International Law, Environmental Law, Consumer Protection Law, Commercial Transactions; Equity, Trust and Specific Relief.

Optional Courses. Four Courses with 9 credit points each: 1. Law of Mines and Industries 2. Law and Tribes 3. Women and Law 4. WTO Studies 5. Socio-economic Offences 6. Media and Law 7. Medicine and Law 8. Cyber Law 9. Law of Insurance 10. Law of Insolvency 11. Criminology 12. International Space Law 13. Law of Infrastructure 14. International Criminal Law 15. Maritime Law 16. Energy Law 17. Competition Law 18. Biotechnology and Law 19. Law of Taxation (Direct) 20. Law of Taxation (Indirect)

Honours Courses i.Constitutional Governance 1. Federalism 2. Protective Discrimination 3. Judicial Review

ii.Corporate Legal System 1. Corporate Finance 2. Corporate Reconstruction 3. Corporate Regulations

iii.Trade and Investment Law 1. International Trade Law 2. International Investment Law 3. National Regulation of International Trade and Investment

iv. Intellectual Property Rights 1. Copyright 2. Trademarks 3. Patents

v. Environmental Law 1. Natural Resource Management 2. Biotechnology and Law 3. International Environmental Law

HNLU LIBRARY(Under Construction)

The HNLU has a three-storied library with air conditioned reading hall. The HNLU Library has adopted an open access system so as to make it easier for the readers to access to the library resources thereby saving precious time. The library has large treasure of law books, case law reports and journals. To assist the students and research scholars in locating their desired legal literature and other information, efficient library automation package has been installed. Photocopying facility is also available in the library. [ 7 ]

The HNLU Library also conducts library orientation programme for the fresh students to acquaint them with the library system, services and resources so that they may exploit the available resources for their maximum benefit..

The library automation software also helps the staff in maintaining inventory and house-keeping jobs. There are quite a few P IV workstations placed in the library hall for the students to browse legal resources from West Law, Manupatra and other on-line sources, apart from Grand Jurix which is available for search off line. [ 8 ]

One of the features of HNLU is its Six Schools as Centres of Excellence in the respective fields and Six Units/Centres under each School with total of thirty six units. [ 9 ] The six schools are:

• The School of Juridical Social Sciences (SJSS)
• The School of Constitutional Administrative Governance (SCAG)
• The School of International Legal Studies (SILS)
• The School of Science, Technology Sustainable Development (SSTSD)
• The School of Business Global Trade Laws Development (SBGTLD)
• The School of Administration of Justice, Continuing Clinical Legal Education (SAJCCLE)

In order to familiarize students with the workings of courts, the University conducts Court Room Exercises (CRE) and Moot Courts. These Court Room Exercises are an interactive method of teaching students and are frequently conducted in every semester. Students are also encouraged to participate in Moot Court competitions so that they get the chance to interact with other law students from all over the country. [ 10 ]

The students of HNLU hav participated and won many of the National and International Moot Courts. HNLU represented India in some of the prestigious International Moot Court Competitions like Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition, Sydney, Australia;International Maritime Arbitration Competition, Sydney; Law Asia Moot Court Competition, Gold coast; Commonwealth Summer School, Dhaka; Commonwealth Summer School, Dhaka; Louis M. Brown Client Counseling Competition; Philip C. Jessups Moot Court Competition etc. [ 11 ]

International

• Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition, Sydney, Australia, 2005. Adarsh A. Varghese of HNLU was adjudged as the Best Oralist (Preliminary Rounds) at this prestigious competition conducted by the International Institute of Space Law. The Team comprising of Adarsh A. Varghese, J Parthsarathi and Neil Padayatty was also one of the semi-finalists and was the only Indian team that advanced to the semi-finals.
• International Maritime Arbitration Competition, Sydney 2005 :Amit Shankar of HNLU was awarded the Alexis Goh Trophyfor the Best Individual Performance.
• Law Asia Moot Court Competition, Gold coast 2005: Debanshu Mukherjee was selected to represent India at the Law Asia Moot Court Competition held at Gold coast, Australia.
• Commonwealth Summer School, Dhaka, 2004: Amit Shanker Singh and Debanshu Mukherjee were selected to represent India at the Commonwealth Summer School held at Dhaka, Bangladesh in December 2004. Amit Shankar was also awarded the Best Mooter Trophy at the Summer School.
• Commonwealth Summer School, Dhaka, 2005: Again two students from HNLU Arvind V and R.P. Janani were selected to represent India at the Commonwealth Summer School 2005

• 4th Amity National Moot Court Competition New Delhi, 2005: Anand S. Jha was adjudged as the Best Student Advocate at this Moot Court Competition conducted by the Amity Law School. The team comprising of Anand S. Jha, Sudhanshu Roy and Subhashish Saha were also one of semi-finalists.
• Louis M. Brown Client Counseling Competition New Delhi, 2005. Kunal Kishore and Shashank Bijapur won the Runner's Up Trophy at this prestigious Client Counselling Competition losing to the host team in the finals.
• K.L.E. Society's League of Mooters Moot Court Competition, 2005. Sudhanshu Roy, P. Basava Rao and Anirudh Dadich were the Runners Up, and also won the Best Memorial Award in this competition
• Philip C. Jessups Moot Court Competition, 2005: The team of Anand S. Jha, Anant Kaushik and Tanuj Bhushan won the Third Best Team trophy as well as the Second Best Memorial Award at the national rounds.
• CUSAT Moot Court Competition, 2004. Arvind V, Divya Varghese and Nupur Nayak won the Best Memorial award for HNLU at this moot held at CUSAT, Cochin, Kerala.
• The National Human Rights Moot Court Competition 2004. This was where HNLU first tasted success when it won the prize for the 2nd Best Memorial. The names of Neil Stephen Padayatty, Barsha Mishra and Loree Sonchhatra who represented HNLU at the said competition deserve a mention.
• The S.C. Javali Memmorial Moot Court Competition 2006. The HNLU team of Arya Shantakumar, Anubha Verma, Srikant Nair won the Best Memorial award at this competition in which over 40 law schools and colleges participated.
• Mayank Mishra was adjudged as the 2nd Best Speaker at the Seminar on Solid Waste Management held at Madurai, Tamil Nadu in February 2005. Mayank also won a consolation prize in the Essay Writing Competition organized by Jain Associates, Meerut in December 2005.
• Xth all India Moot Court Competition, University Law College, Bangalore. The team of Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur has won the Runner’s UP Trophy, at the Xth All India Moot Court Competition, organized by University Law College, Bangalore from 23rd February to 28th February, at Bangalore. The Team was composed of Harshwardhan 7th Sem, Intekab Hassan 7th Sem, and Anirudh Dadich 6th Sem. The team passed from two qualifying round followed by quarterfinals, semifinals and at last the finals. Around 36 teams all over the country from all reputed law colleges participated in the competition. The final round was adjudged by five judges of Karnataka High Court. The Trophy was given by the acting Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court.

The Student Bar Association (SBA) at HNLU is the representative body of the students and maintains the highest degree of professionalism and ethics. The Association comprises twelve students who are the conveners of the twelve committees of the University. A President and a Vice-President are then elected from amongst these twelve members. The members and officers of the Association hold office for a year. The Association is responsible for making all decisions affecting the students and makes suitable recommendations to the Vice-Chancellor. The Association also coordinates and supervises the activities of all the committees at the University. The HNLU Students Bar Association consists of twelve Committees viz. Moot Court Society, Legal Service Society, Literary and Debate Society, Library Committee, I.T. Committee, Public Relations Committee, Disciplinary Committee, Mess Committee, Halls of Residence Committee, Cultural Committee, Students Editorial Board and Sports Committee. Each Committee has a convener and co-convener. Each Committee has at least two faculty advisors. The President and Vice President of the Student Bar Council are elected by the conveners of the committees. This is a professional body maintaining the highest professional integrity and skills.

The Presidents of the SBA till date are as follows:

2005-06 Adarsh Varghese

2006-07 Debanshu Mukherjee