NLSIU Registrar Dr. O. V. Nandimath Resigns

The University was surrounded by student protests and boycotts earlier this month who were discontented with the delay in appointment of Krishnaswamy. Nandimath was the Ex-Officio Secretary to the Executive Council (EC), which is involved in the procedural formalities of the VC's appointment and the Student Body attributed this hold up to the conflict of interest of Nandimath who had also applied for the position of VC.

The protests were sparked by the appointment of M. K. Ramesh as "Additional VC/ VC (FAC)" instead of Krishnaswamy who had been named for the position by a High-Level Committee appointed by the Chief Justice of India, Chancellor of NLSIU, consisting of Justice M. P. Singh; Attorney General for India, K. K. Venugopal and Senior Advocate Arvind Datar. The issue of was also instigated on an information that there was likely to be a change in the composition of the Executive Council of NLSIU, for appointment of a new VC.

The protests were later called off on a clarification given the CJI Ranjan Gogoi and Justice S. A. Bobde. They said that protests were a result of a lot of misinformation and clarified that the decision of the Sub-Committee to appoint Prof. Krishnaswamy was final and awaited only a formal decision.

Subsequently, Krishnaswamy took charge as the new VC on September 25, after a formal announcement in this behalf.

While Nandimath has resigned from the position of Registrar, he will continue to discharge his duties as a Professor for Torts Law and Banking Law.

He joined NLSIU as a Lecturer in 1997, was promoted as Assistant Professor in July 2001 and as Associate Professor in 2006 and Professor in 2012. He has assumed the office of the Registrar on 9th July, 2013.

Formerly, Nandimath was a Lecturer at the G.K. Law College, Hubli during 1996-1997 and was a Visiting Faculty at K.L.E. Society's Management School in Hubli. He has also been a Visiting Faculty at Warwick University, Coventry, U.K. in 1999 and at Cardiff University, U.K. in 2003. He was a Fulbright Fellow, and Stegner Fellow to the University of Utah during January- July 2006.

Nandimath also specializes in Environment Law and has published three books, namely, Hand Book for Law Practitioners, 'Enforcers' Manual in Hazardous Waste Law and Management and The Hand Book on Environmental Decision Making in India - An EIA model. He has also produced a CD database compiling Environmental Legislations in Karnataka entitled "Sustainable State in 2006."