S. Vishnu Sharma
CLAT 2020 exam will now be the base on which admissions into law universities will be undertaken.
This seems to be imminent as the nation’s top court cancelled NLAT 2020 exam.
CLAT 2020 score to be the base for great NLU admissions
Supreme Court said all law universities including National Law School of India University (NLSIU) in Bengaluru can admit students based on scores from CLAT 2020 exam which will be conducted on 28 September.
While cancelling NLAT 2020 entrance exam, court also directed that admissions in all 22 National Law Universities (NLUs) will be conducted based on CLAT 2020 exam.
Bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan passed the order based on a plea filed challenging NLAT 2020 by former vice-chancellor of NLSIU Professor R. Venkata Rao and Rakesh Kumar Agarwalla, the parent of a law course aspirant.
The petition challenged the decision of NLSIU to backout of CLAT 2020 and to conduct a seperate entrance test.
Sources said NLSIU had proposed conducting a seperate exam NLAT 2020 (National Law Aptitude Test 2020) for admission to its five year integrated BA LLB (Honours) programme in the recent past.
NLAT was held in online mode on 12 and 14 September. The results were supposed to be declared after judgement of Supreme Court.
Common Law Admisssion Test (CLAT) is a centralised national level entrance test for gaining admission into 22 National Law Universities for studying law and NLSIU is also one of them.
The usual practise was to conduct CLAT 2020 for admissions this year, however, things did not move as per the plan this year owing to outbreak of corona virus and subsequent lockdown imposed to regulate its spread.
As per the schedule, exam date for CLAT 2020 was on 10 May.
However, lockdown imposition left little scope for conducting the exam and moreover as the safety of students received top priority the exam was postponed.
The authorities conducting CLAT 2020 decided on 29 June to conduct the test in online method instead of the usual physical test.
The test date for CLAT 2020 was later on fixed on 22 August. The exam had to be further postponed to 7 September as the number of corona virus cases saw an upward movement.
The authorities conducting the exam again postponed the date to 28 September soon after they received a communication from Professor Nirmal Kanti Chakrabarti, vice chancellor of NJUS of Kolkata that a complete lockdown would be imposed in West Bengal on 7 September.
As conducting of CLAT 2020 got further delayed, the chances of conducting a seperate exam by NLSIU were explored, said sources.
Sources further said the executive council of NLSIU met on 12 August where it was resolved that if there is any further delay of CLAT 2020, vice chancellor is empowered to take all required measures to ensure admission process for 2020-21 would be completed by September this year.
The executive council of NLSIU met on 18 August where the resolution to empower Vice Chancellor of NLSIU to undertake an independent admission process in case CLAT 2020 was further delayed.
A faculty meeting at NLSIU on 31 August took note of the CLAT 2020 being further postponed to 28 September from 7 September.
NLSUI issued a notification about admission being conducted for its five year BA LLB programme through NLAT 2020 test which would be held on 12 September.
Candidates were to attend the test using a computer from their places of stay itself.
NLAT 2020 was held on 12 September, that was when there were lot of complaints. Attendees on 12 September said they experienced technical glitches and manipulation.
The test (NLAT 2020) was again held on 14 September for all those who complained about technical glitches and manipulation.
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It was on 11 September that Supreme Court gave a go ahead to NLSIU to conduct a seperate exam, however it was restrained from announcing the results and admitting any students till the pendency of the plea.
The decision to conduct NLAT 2020 seems to have not gone well and plea was filed.
Bench hearing the plea said the matter was important and it has to be decided and notices were issued to NLSIU and its vice chancellor Professor Sudhir Krishnaswamy seeking their response.
Supreme Court reserved its order on the plea on 17 September. NLSIU also defended its decision to conduct a seperate exam instead of CLAT 2020.
However, Supreme Court cancelled the decision to hold seperate exam and said admissions into law universities must be done on basis of CLAT 2020.
Supreme Court said CLAT 2020 must be conducted on 28 September on adhereing to all health guidelines issued by the Central Government.
The nation’s top court also said the results of CLAT 2020 must be declared as early as possible so that law universities can start their classes by middle of October.
About CLAT 2020
The Common Law Admission Test, CLAT is a national level entrance exam for admissions to undergraduate and postgraduate law programmes offered by 22 National Law Universities (NLUs) around the country.
CLAT 2020 is organized by the Consortium of National Law Universities (CLUs) consisting of the representative universities.
Registrations for CLAT 2020 began on 1 January this year and closed on 10 July. The exam will be conducted on 28 September.