Delhi High Court asks BCI to clarify whether it is conducting CLAT in vernacular languages

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has asked the Bar Council of India (BCI) to respond to a writ petition, filed by two students Pratham Kaushik and Neeta Rai, seeking holding of the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2020 in vernacular languages.

As of now, CLAT 2020 is scheduled to be conducted in the English language and is likely to be conducted in the month of September.

If the decision comes in favour of the vernacular languages, it will benefit not only students who are from Hindi medium but will also benefit the candidates who have completed their school education in Tamil, Telugu or any other language.

Justice Najmi Waziri directed BCI to take up a call within three weeks and inform the petitioners who have argued that under Article 343, Hindi is recognised as the national language of India, so giving primacy to the English language is just unfair and unjust.

CLAT 2020 - A case for inclusion of vernacular languages

CLAT is a national law entrance exam, which is conducted by the Consortium of National Law Universities across the country. Every year, law aspirants from all corners of the country appear for the entrance examination in English medium, these include the students who speak and complete their school education in vernacular languages such as Hindi, Punjabi, Telugu, Tamil and others and find it tough to deal in the English language.

Moreover, the legislation passed by the parliament and state legislature happens to be either in Hindi language or in any other vernacular language. Even the courts in India work either in Hindi or in vernacular languages. The Supreme Court Judgments are also translated into nine regional languages.