Students of the National University of Juridical Sciences have appealed to the authorities to waive some fees because they are attending online classes and not using some of the facilities.

The students have demanded reduction of fees for the July-December semester to be charged for exams, students’ welfare, moot courts, hostel and study materials, an official of the law school said.

A fourth-year student said the fee for the current semester of his batch was around Rs 1.6 lakh. A student of the batch will have to pay around Rs 46,000 less if the authorities accept the demand.

“Almost every student is facing a financial crisis because of the pandemic. Reduction of Rs 46,000 will be of great relief to us,” the fourth-year student said.

“If the students’ demands are accepted, the fees for the current semester will reduce by Rs 46,000 to Rs 51,000, depending on the batches,” an official said.

Vice-chancellor N.K. Chakrabarti said: “The appeal is under consideration. The matter will be placed in the next meeting of the executive council (August 22). We will be in a position to say whether the fees can be reduced or not after the meeting.”

An official said the authorities were in favour of granting relief to the students. “But all their demands cannot be accepted. The entire hostel fee can’t be waived off. The hostels are closed but each employee is being paid the full salary.”

The authorities plan to offer uniform relief to all batches, the official said. “As of now there is no plan to offer any relief to the incoming batch,” he said.

The institute’s five-year LLB course costs around Rs 15 lakh, including tuition, hostel and other fees, according to the existing fee structure.