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CLAT 2018 Under Fire: SC Asks NUALS To Set Up Nodal Committee

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Due to the mismanagement and technical glitches faced by thousands of students during CLAT 2018, petitions demanding re-examination have moved to the SC.

The Common Law Admission test is a centralised test taken by more than 40,000 candidates every year, for admission to 19 National Law Universities and 43 other education institutes of India. Organised for the first time in 2008, the test is conducted by India’s 19 NLUs rotation on a rotational basis.  This year, CLAT was organised by the National University of Advanced Legal Studies (NUALS) on 13th May across 260 centres. Due to complaints of mismanagement, technical glitches, and irregularities CLAT 2018 has been under fire. Petitions demanding a re-examination or granting of additional marks to compensate for the time lost as a result of the glitches have been filed in various HCs, alleging misconduct and negligence on the part of NUALS.

ABVP has asked that the exam must be conducted by an autonomous organisation or the central government. The online exam process attracted criticism from all over the country and according to the petitioners it “suffers from arbitrariness, lack of fairness, lack of transparency, lack of authenticity, and discrimination between similarly placed students”.

The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday stayed the publication of CLAT 2018 results till 25th May. On 24th May, the Supreme Court vacation bench of Justices A. M. Khanwilkar and Navin Sinha heard the writ petitions regarding CLAT-2018 and suggested setting up of a nodal agency to examine the grievances of candidates on a case to case basis and offer redressal. The Bench asked Senior Advocate V. Giri and Advocate Karthik who appeared for NUALS to reply by Friday on this suggestion. The bench also restrained the High Courts seized by similar matters from proceeding therewith.
The bench required the respondents, including NUALS and its CLAT Core Committee to attempt to effect a feasible solution by Friday, failing which the bench “shall accommodate”. It also pointed out the need for an inbuilt mechanism for redressal by some authority or forum and an efficient examination of each case.

It, thus, becomes very important for the CLAT 2018 Core Committee to take appropriate steps, at the earliest, to redress the grievances of the thousands of students whose careers are at stake.

Feature Image Credit: IP Leader
Muskan Sethi
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A 19 year old who believes in ice cream and purple skies, Muskan spends her days listening to Prateek Kuhad and The Lumineers on repeat while playing copious amounts of Chess. If you'd like to discuss conspiracy theories or share something that needs to be reported, do drop her a line at [email protected].

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