Bar Council Of India Supports PIL Before Delhi High Court Seeking Holding Of CLAT In Regional Languages

The Bar Council of India has told the Delhi High Court that conducting Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) in regional languages will give opportunities to more citizens to pursue law as a career.

The lawyers’ body has supported a public interest litigation seeking to conduct CLAT-UG 2024 not only in English but also in other regional languages as mentioned in the eighth schedule of the Constitution of India.

“That the Bar Council of India supports the issue raised by Petitioner for conducting the CLAT examination in languages other than English as the same will give opportunities to more citizens of the country to appear in the exam and pursue law as career,” the BCI has said in its affidavit filed yesterday.

BCI has further submitted that the All India Bar Examination (AIBE), which was held on February 05, was decided to be conducted in 23 languages - English and other regional languages.

Recently, the Consortium of National Law Universities in its affidavit told the court that it is a “near impossibility” to hold the CLAT 2024 examination, which is scheduled to take place in December, in regional languages.

However, the Consortium had said that it will be able to prepare a well-considered roadmap for the “eventual introduction” of additional languages in the examination in the coming months after due deliberations.

The petition has been moved by Sudhanshu Pathak, who is a law student of Delhi University. He is represented by Advocates Akash Vajpai and Sakshi Raghav.

The plea states that the CLAT examination fails to provide a “level playing field” to the students whose educational backgrounds are rooted in regional languages.

It has been submitted that the practice of taking CLAT (UG) examination only in English language has an element of arbitrariness and discrimination and is violative of Articles 14 and 29(2) of Constitution of India.

The petitioner also places reliance on a recent survey conducted by IDIA Trust indicating that over 95% of the surveyed students came from schools where the medium of instruction was English, both at the secondary and higher secondary level.

It has also been submitted that the new Education Policy of 2020 and Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 require mother tongue to be the medium of instruction in schools and higher education institutions.

Title: SUDHANSHU PATHAK v. CONSORTIUM OF NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITIES THROUGH SECRETARY & ORS