THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The present row over the status and management of the Law Academy is, in fact, not something new. The very same issue that has now snowballed into a raging controversy was first brought out by ‘Express’ 20 years ago.
In a series of reports in 1997, senior journalist, the late N Narendran, had exposed the alleged malpractices in the college and the extraordinary political patronage enjoyed by the management allowing it to remain immune to possible legal action and government scrutiny. “The Kerala Law Academy Law College’s violation of the statutes and rules that govern both aided and unaided colleges in the state has put a question mark over its status,” said the November 18, 1997, report by Narendran titled ‘Kerala Law Academy: A Law Unto Itself’.
“Unqualified and overaged staff and admissions to students falling short of the minimum marks are some of the perceived irregularities practised in the institute which is closely held as a family concern, managed by the most durable Syndicate member of the Kerala University, Dr Narayanan Nair,” the report said.
The report had gone on to explain how the college enjoyed an ‘unaided’ status since its inception although unaided colleges came into being only in 1995 through an amendment passed by the Assembly. It further shed light on the way political organisations, including CPM and Congress, regularly squeezed in their candidates. At least 35 MLAs, the report said, were alumni of this institution at the time. Ironically in 1997, unlike in 2017, the ire of students’ unions of various political organisations were not directed at the college, but at this paper when the reports were published. Sit-ins were staged and copies of ‘Express’ were burnt in front of the Secretariat.
The expose created waves in Kerala University. In December 1997, a notice for an adjournment motion on this issue was moved in the KU Senate, but was rejected. The next day, SFI members disrupted Senate proceedings demanding the disqualification of ABVP member A Mahesh Chandran, who had raised the issue in the Senate the day before, saying he was not a full-time student of the university.