Satya prakash
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 21
On Monday, the Supreme Court struck down the National Law Admission Test (NLAT-2020) conducted by the National Law School of the University of India (NLSIU), Bengaluru, on September 12 for admission to law courses.
A bench headed by Judge Ashok Bhushan ordered NLSIU to admit students to law courses according to the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) in mid-October.
The bank, which had allowed NLSIU to conduct NLAT but prevented it from declaring results, said CLAT 2020 had to be held on September 28 as scheduled and in accordance with all safety guidelines prescribed by the Union Ministry of Health.
The Bank said the results of CLAT-2020 should be declared as soon as possible to allow law colleges to start the admissions process as soon as possible.
The conduct of CLAT-2020 should not be hampered by NLSIU in any way, the Bank said it had booked its order on September 17.
This year’s CLAT is scheduled for September 28, but after an August 28 meeting of the consortium of national law universities, NLSIU on September 3 decided to run its own entrance test – NLAT on September 12. NLSIU had said it will not accept CLAT scores in admissions to its law courses this year.
However, NLSIU’s decision to leave CLAT and go to NLAT was challenged in high court by former NLSIU Vice Chancellor Professor R Venkata Rao, and some students and their parents.
Professor Rao had argued that the decision to opt for a separate NLAT will make the NLSIU an “island of exclusion” from an “island of excellence.”
Qualifying the decision to conduct a separate test as capricious, unfounded, blatantly arbitrary and illegal, Professor Rao said, adding that the current NLSIU vice chancellor did not have the required consent of the academic council for it.
“The technical requirement to have a laptop and 1 Mbps of Internet speed to bring home the proctored exam is burdensome, arbitrary, discriminatory and illegal,” the petition presents.
Unlike general universities that admit only those who have already completed a three-year BA, BSc, or BCom course, admission to the NLU is open to candidates who pass their class 12 exam, provided they pass the CLAT.
The petitioners had alleged that the sudden unilateral decision of the NLSIU had created unprecedented uncertainty, fear and confusion among the applicants who had been subjected to extreme pressure and mental stress.
