The new campus of National Law University inaugurated at Naraj on Saturday. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, Aug. 4: The new campus of National Law University, Odisha, was inaugurated at Naraj on the outskirts of the city today.

The new campus, spread over 50 acres, was built at a cost of Rs 78 crore out of a total Rs 185 crore sanctioned by Odisha government.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik had laid the foundation stone for the campus in 2008 and the law varsity was being run from a rented building from July 2009.

Inaugurating the new campus today, Naveen said the long-cherished dream of establishing a National Law University in Odisha had become a reality.

There has been a great demand for young lawyers, which was likely to increase further. NLU, Odisha, has always focused on “justice studies” rather than traditional “legal studies”.

The existing National Law Universities in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Bengal and Rajasthan had already set high standards in legal education, said the chief minister.

The university had strived to be different from other universities as it aimed to set up specialised centres in mining law, energy law, food law and others areas that were as yet unexplored, Naveen said.

At present, 240 students are pursuing BBA, LLB and BA, LLB degrees from the premier educational institution that also plans to introduce LLM from the 2012-13 session.

Besides this, the law varsity also has a School of Public Law and Private Law, School of Liberal Arts and School of Managerial Excellence.

The new campus of the university has been equipped with modern facilities including a multi-gym, auditorium with seating capacity of over a thousand, an open-air theatre and a food court.

Officials said that of the 15 National Law Universities in the country, the Odisha varsity had stressed integration of knowledge and on teaching justice rather than law.

The university was the first to merge LLM with PhD which was aimed at producing quality teachers. This had yielded positive results. “It has been a long journey for us and our students will be provided with the best legal education in the world here in Odisha,” said vice-chancellor Chandra Krishnamurthy.

Krishnamurthy said the university was shortly going to introduce honours subjects and allow students to pick subjects of their choice. Selecting subjects was not a choice available at other law schools and universities in India, she added.