CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has directed the National Law University, Odisha (NLUO) to offer admission to a student in its three-year LLB course if any seat falls vacant by the end of November, after finding that the university had allowed her to take the entrance test despite her not meeting the Odisha domicile eligibility criteria.
A division bench of Justices BP Routray and Savitri Ratho directed that if no seat became available by the stipulated deadline, NLUO would have to pay her Rs 1 lakh as “symbolic compensation” for the mistake.
The petitioner student had applied for the 2026-27 three-year LLB course under the Odisha Domicile Reservation Category. She secured an All India Rank of 61 and Odisha Domicile Rank of 6 in the NLUO entrance test and was subsequently issued a provisional admission offer. But later she was disqualified.
Challenging it, she contended that the university’s admission webpage brochure had originally stated that candidates under the domicile category were required to have passed Class XII or an equivalent examination from Odisha with at least 60 per cent marks. She had passed Class XII from Sanskar International School, Dang, Bargarh but completed graduation from Kalinga University in Raipur, Chhattisgarh.
During counselling, however, NLUO stipulated that domicile-category candidates must have passed their graduation or equivalent examination from a recognised college or university in Odisha. The student argued that this condition had subsequently been changed on the website.
The NLUO disputed this, saying the webpage relied upon by the petitioner related to the 2024-25 academic year and not 2026-27. The bench examined the 2025-26 prospectus and 2026-27 admission notification and held that the latter clearly prescribed graduation from a recognised college or university in Odisha as a mandatory condition.
The bench, however, noted that she had been permitted to sit for the exam and also did not pursue admission elsewhere. She had lost one academic year due to the mistake of NLUO.
