Bar Council of India offers to conduct CLAT 2024 in multiple regional languages

NEW DELHI: The Bar Council of India in an additional affidavit filed to the Delhi High Court has offered to conduct the Common Law Entrance Test (CLAT) 2024 exam in multiple regional languages.

The council stated that it has the “mechanism” to conduct the test for all law institutes in “various languages” as it had done in the past for the All India Bar Examination (AIBE). The CLAT exam is currently being conducted in English by the Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs) on a rotational basis.

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The BCI stated that all the National Law Universities (NLUs) have been established by legislation while the BCI, being the statutory body, has no role or supervision in the conduction of CLAT.

“That the Bar Council of India proposes that it may be permitted to constitute the body of experts through its Legal Education Committee, to hold CLAT wherein the Legal Education Committee council involve some sitting and former Hon'ble Judges, noted educationists of legal education and eminent jurists,” an affidavit from the Bar Council of India read.

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According to LiveLaw news, “ The Consortium of NLUs had earlier told the High Court that while AIBE can be easily translated and conducted in multiple languages, CLAT examination involves many more issues in translation. However, BCI supported the PIL and said that conducting CLAT in regional languages will give opportunities to more citizens to pursue law as a career.”

The CLAT exam for session 2024 will be conducted on December 3 as per the official schedule.

The reply from the BCI came after a public interest litigation, filed by Sudhanshu Pathak who is law student of Delhi University, contended that CLAT (UG) examination “discriminates” and fails to provide a “level playing field” to the students whose educational backgrounds are rooted in regional languages.