The National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS) has reserved seats for students who are permanent residents of Bengal for the first time since the institution was set up 15 years ago.

Vice-chancellor P. Ishwara Bhat said 10 of the Salt Lake law school's 125 LLB seats would be reserved for students living permanently in the state from the academic session starting this year.

"Our proposal to introduce reservation for domicile candidates of Bengal was recently approved by our academic council," Bhat said.

Candidates living in Bengal for at least 10 years or whose parents (either or both) are permanent residents of Bengal and have a permanent address in the state are eligible for the quota.

A source said the NUJS authorities had thought about the domicile quota after the Mamata Banerjee government gave the institute a 3,000sq m plot adjacent to the campus at a "highly subsidised price".

The institute, the source said, suffers from a space crunch and had long been asking for the plot. Many girl students from the districts or other states face problems finding a place to stay as the only girls' hostel of the institute lacks enough space.

Campus sources said a girls' hostel that can accommodate 100-odd students and a guest house will come up on the plot.

Vice-chancellor Bhat said the government had given the land without any condition.

There are 16 law schools in the country, including the NUJS. All of them follow the national reservation policy related to students with disabilities and those belonging to the SC, ST and NRI categories. Some of the institutes - such as the ones in Kochi and Bhopal - have domicile quotas.