Students stage protest against indiscriminate fee hike in KSLU

Highlighting the need for corrective measures to resolving various issues affecting students in Karnataka State Law University (KSLU), scores of students staged a protest on the university campus in Hubballi recently.

In the protest staged under the aegis of Akhila Bharat Vidyarthi Parishath (ABVP), the protestors questioned what they termed as indiscriminate increase in various fees collected by the university.

Addressing the protestors, central executive committee member of ABVP Sachin Kulageri said that KSLU has increased the fee structure from ₹3,700 to ₹8,580 during 2025 against which students have approached the High Court of Karnataka.

“The High Court has ruled that the 129% increase in fee is illegal and ordered for reimbursement of additional amount collected from students. However, the university has appealed against the order which is highly condemnable. KSLU should adhere to the court order and decrease the fee,” he demanded.

Mr. Sachin said that similarly the university had increased the re-evaluation fee from ₹ 260 in 2023 to ₹ 368 in 2026, a hike of 31%, while the UGC guidelines allowed 15% hike every three years.

He also demanded that all the law graduates should be allowed to attend the annual convocation and withdraw the order on allowing only graduates who have passed with First Class marks to the convocation.

He said that the university should take only postal charges from graduates who want to receive their convocation certificates in-absentia.

Responding to their plea, KSLU Vice-Chancellor C. Basavaraju told them that he will convene a meeting of officials and student leaders to deliberate and resolve the issues.

ABVB office-bearers Venkatesh Dange, Abhishek Doddamani, Sanat Totiger, Manikanth Desai and others led the protest.