The National People’s Youth Front (NPYF), Dimapur district unit has univocally condemned the continued absence of a fully functional, adequately funded standalone Government Law College in Nagaland, terming the failure as not administrative oversight, but sustained political neglect by successive governments.
In a statement issued by its president, Zato Sumi, the NPYF alleged that after more than six decades of statehood, Nagaland still lacks a single fully functional government law college of sufficient capacity and infrastructure. Terming it “a glaring gap” persistent over extended period of governance by the Naga People’s Front (NPF) and the present coalition involving the Bharatiya Janata Party, as well as earlier governments.
Stating that responsibility is cumulative and undeniable, the NPYF said thought the state has passed annual budgets running into thousands of crores through the Nagaland Legislative Assembly for decades, yet there has been no transparent, time-bound policy commitment, no dedicated institutional framework and no visible capital investment plan for establishing a Government Law College.
“This is not a question of financial incapacity—it is a clear demonstration of misplaced priorities,” it said.
It lamented that while other sectors have witnessed expansion with new directorates, administrative overheads, and political appointments, the foundational requirement of legal education has been systematically ignored.
“This contradiction exposes a governance model that prioritizes optics over structural development,” the Front said.
At present, the NPYF said, legal education in Nagaland survives only through limited and inconsistent forms under Nagaland University and affiliated institutions, operating without the scale, funding or institutional autonomy. “This fragmented arrangement cannot substitute for a dedicated Government Law College,” it added.
The Front asserted that this failure has produced a structural inequality, forcing students, particularly from economically weaker backgrounds, to migrate outside the State for legal education, thereby imposing disproportionate financial and social burdens. Access to professional education cannot remain a privilege determined by economic capacity.
The NPYF reminded the Government that while higher education is not an absolute fundamental right, the Supreme Court ruling such as Mohini Jain v. State of Karnataka and Unni Krishnan v. State of Andhra Pradesh, has clearly affirmed that the State bears a constitutional obligation to progressively expand access to education under the broader framework of Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
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It further stated that in Nagaland’s unique constitutional context, this obligation carries greater urgency. “The protections under Article 371A demand a robust ecosystem of locally trained legal professionals capable of navigating both customary laws and constitutional frameworks. The continued absence of such an institution is not merely an educational gap—it is a strategic institutional failure,” it stated.
Stating that the recurring justification of fiscal constraints under budgetary discipline frameworks is untenable, the Front said a government that consistently allocates substantial resources toward administrative expansion cannot claim incapacity when it comes to establishing a single critical institution that underpins justice delivery, governance and rights awareness.
In the light of these concerns, the NPYF demanded immediate establishment of a Government Law College in Nagaland within a defined and time-bound framework.
It warned that youth of Nagaland would no longer tolerate continued “neglect and empty political assurances.
