Chennai: Arappor Iyakkam, an anti-corruption NGO, has raised questions about physical inspections conducted by Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University for granting affiliation to 10 private law colleges across Tamil Nadu.

Citing replies to RTI queries, the NGO said that there is prima facie evidence that irregularities might have taken place, as the inspection committee travelled 1,200km across state in three days to conduct physical inspections for 2024-25 and 2025-26.

In a representation to chief minister M K Stalin, the NGO demanded a reinspection of private law colleges. It also urged the university to video record the inspection.

“We received complaints that inspections were not carried out properly in private law colleges by Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University. These colleges lacked infrastructure facilities, and professors were shown only on paper,” said Radhakrishnan M of Arappor Iyakkam.

“Following this, we filed RTI applications to the university seeking details, including the inspection dates, the inspection committee members, and the details of professors working in private law colleges,” he said.

According to the reply to the RTI query, the universityheld inspections to grant affiliation to 10 private law colleges over three days from Jan 30, 2024, to Feb 1, 2024. Each college needs to be inspected for one full day, whereas this committee would have had only a few minutes if we deduct the travel time, the representation said.

For example, the university said inspection for SKP Law College in Tiruvannamalai, Sir Isaac Newton Law College in Nagapattinam, and Mother Teresa Law College in Pudukottai was conducted on Jan 30, and the committee travelled 420km in one day.

“The committees need to inspect the educational qualifications of the professors, their salary, classrooms, infrastructure, buildings, library, and moot courts. It would require one day to inspect one college thoroughly. We suspect irregularities,” Radhakrishnan said.

University officials said the inspections were conducted for extending the affiliation and they were already inspected by the Bar Council when they started the colleges.