SC To Hear CLAT Petitions After Diwali Break

The decision of the Consortium of National Law Universities for CLAT-2019 to be conducted offline and for a permanent CLAT secretariat to function all year long was communicated to the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

The bench of Justices S. A. Bobde and L. Nageswara Rao was hearing a PIL by academician Shamnad Basheer seeking the setting up of a permanent body to hold the CLAT.

The decision was taken at the 4th meeting of the Consortium of National Law Universities, which was held on October 17 at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore.

A press release stated, “Keeping in view that in last few years there have been glitches due to the fault of the service provider in the conduct of the online CLAT examination, the CLAT Consortium unanimously resolved that CLAT-2019 will be conducted offline....”

https://twitter.com/shamnad/status/1057158148111384576

On Tuesday, the Ministry of Human Resource Development submitted its report on the conduct of CLAT-2018, which has been in news for being marred by innumerable snags and malfunctions. Despite the report having been filed in sealed cover, The bench directed a copy of the same to be served on the concerned parties.

Further, the National Testing Agency communicated its inclination to hold the CLAT in the future.

The matter will now be heard after the Diwali vacation.

The innumerable hindrances the candidates were faced with during the CLAT this year include inter alia-

(a) Blank Screens while attempting the questions, for almost 10 minutes after commencement of examination;
(b) Regular hanging/disruption of computer systems provided to the Petitioners;
(c) Electricity cut and Power Failures at several centers across India;
(d) Problems in bio-metric verification of candidates.
(e) Test timers continuing to run inspite of hanging of /crashing of computer systems;
(f) Absence of a uniform protocol to deal with the allotment of time, or extension of time in case of electric failure, or technical failure of the software, or any other alternative arrangement to make up for the valuable time lost;
(g) Non – adherence to the instructions contained in the Admission Card and non-observance of pre – testing of the computer systems to obviate any technical glitches during the conduct of the examination; and
(h) No specific seats were allotted to the Petitioners and the Petitioners were made to sit on random computer systems which were presumed to be working properly as per the Respondents