[CLAT 2021] NLU Consortium Permits Candidates To Participate In Counselling Provisionally Without Payment Of Fee: Kerala HC Disposes Of Plea

The Consortium of National Law Universities on Monday informed the Kerala High Court that as per the directions of the Court, its Grievance Redressal Committee had permitted several candidates to provisionally participate in the Counselling process for admission to NLUs without paying the Rs. 50,000 deposit.

Justice Anu Sivaraman disposed of the matter noting that that the Consortium had responded expeditiously to the grievances raised by the petitioners and other similarly placed candidates.

The Court added that "in a process where candidates have to pay such a high amount, the same should be mentioned in the initial notification itself. Otherwise, students might be taken by surprise and might not be able to pay; especially students not eligible for fee reductions. It is difficult for them to raise this amount in such a short time".

The petition was filed by a group of candidates of CLAT 2021 who had challenged the compulsory ₹50,000 fee required to be paid to be considered for allotment in National Law Universities. 

The Court had accordingly directed the students to send in their grievances to the Grievance Redressal Committee within 3 PM on Friday. 

Advocate Rassal Janardhanan A, appearing for the petitioners, submitted that while two of the petitioners were able to remit the Rs. 50,000 counselling fee, the other two were unable to do the same.

He added that they could not register their grievance with the grievance redressal committee within the stipulated time period due to some technical issues.

However, upon sending the committee an email, their issues were taken care of and they have been allowed to participate in the process, provisionally, without remitting the fee.

He concluded with an additional prayer that the Court may issue directions to the Consortium to consider such grievances from similarly placed candidates in future years as well and to mention the counselling fee in the prospectus of each NLU in the future

It was also submitted that eleven more similarly placed candidates had approached the committee based on the Court's earlier order and they were also allowed to participate in the counselling process.

The Court while disposing of the matter, observed that the grievances of the petitioners in the instant case have been addressed in a timely manner.

Case Title: Sivapriya Ajith v. Union of India and Ors.