Supreme Court quashes NLAT 2020, directs NLSIU to accept CLAT scores

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has quashed the NLAT 2020 entrance exam conducted by National Law School of India Bangalore (NLSIU). The court has directed the university to conduct admissions to BA LLB and LLM programmes instead on the basis of Common Law Admission Test (CLAT), which is scheduled to be held on September 28.

The apex court also directed CLAT 2020 be held in accordance with safety guidelines issued by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and instructed the consortium to declare results of CLAT at the earliest so that the universities may start their academic year by mid-October.

Earlier on September 17, a Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan had reserved its judgement on a plea filed by former NLSIU vice chancellor Professor R Venkata Rao challenging the conduct of NLAT and said it would announce its judgement of September 21.

The plea claimed that the decision to hold NLAT will create an “elitist institution” for those students who are able to afford to take the test while ignoring the aspirations of poor and less privileged candidates. It had sought the quashing of the NLSIU’s new admission process that was notified on September 4.

NLAT 2020 marred in controversy from start to end

NLSIU’s decision to conduct NLAT was criticised by legal experts including the Consortium of National Law Universities who said it was an arbitrary decision.
On September 11, the Supreme Court gave NLSIU the go-ahead to conduct NLAT but restrained it from declaring the result.
NLAT was conducted in online mode on September 12. But, the test was marred by several technical and verification failures, which put a severe mental trauma on several candidates. It was reported that many who applied for admission through NLAT could not even log in for appearing in the test and many who appeared in NLAT could not complete the test.

In response to technical issues faced by candidates during the exam conducted on September 12, NLSIU conducted a re-test on September 14 for those who had complained about technical and verification failures. The re-test of NLAT also raised eyebrows as there were many reports suggesting NLAT paper leak even when the test was going on.

Way ahead for 27,000 students who appeared in NLAT 2020

Candidates who appeared in NLAT by paying an application fee of Rs. 150 (Rs. 125 for SC/ST candidates) will now have to appear in CLAT 2020.
The CLAT exam will be conducted in online test centre based mode and will have 22 national law universities including NLSIU Bangalore as participating institutes.

Also read:

• CLAT 2020 admit card released @consortiumofnlus.ac.in: : Know important points
• CLAT 2020: Know exam day guidelines and COVID 19 precautions

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