Breaking: CLAT 2021 (UG): One Question Deleted, Changed Answer Key For Two Questions-Read Press Release

The Consortium Of National Law Universities (CNLUs) on Tuesday notified a press release stipulating its decision on the various objections filed by students pursuant to the recommendations of the Subject Experts Committee and the Oversight Committee. Accordingly one question was deleted (Question Number 143) and the Answer key was changed for 2 questions (Question Numbers 61 and 98) for CLAT undergraduate exam (UG). 

The press release noted that CLAT-2021 had been conducted on July 23, 2021 at 147 centres in 82 cities across the country. Furthermore, all stakeholders had been provided with COVID-19 Kits containing sanitizer, mask, face shield, and hand-gloves. Apart from increasing Test Centres from previous years, the Consortium had directed the Centres to accommodate less than 50% of actual seating capacity in the examination halls. Moreover, the Test Centres had been strictly instructed to display Seating Plans at multiple visible locations so as to prevent crowding.

Objections Received:

The Consortium further specified that the Master Question Booklet with Provisional Answer Key had been published at 09:00 P.M. on the day of the Test itself inviting objection(s) on Questions and Answer Key. The Portal for objections closed at 09:00 P.M. on July 24, 2021. The Consortium Office received 24 objections on 11 out of 120 Questions for the post-graduate exam (PG) and 1,026 Objections were received on 61 Questions for the undergraduate exam (UG).

Constitution Of Subject Expert Committees:

Pursuant to the receipt of the objections, the Executive Committee of Consortium met on July 24, 2021 and thereby directed the Convenor to constitute a Committee comprising three subject experts for each of the five sections of the UG and a Committee of three subject experts for the PG. The Committees included renowned scholars, deans, and heads of departments and they were tasked with the responsibility to look into the objections.

Question Papers with Provisional Answer Key along with all the objections in each section were placed before the respective Committees of each section. There were 47 objections on 13 out of 30 Questions of English Section; 53 objections on 7 out of 35 Questions on General Knowledge & Current Affairs; 492 objections on 21 out of 40 Questions of Legal Reasoning; 67 objections on 8 out of 30 Questions of Logical Reasoning; and 367 objections on 12 out of 15 Questions of section on Quantitative Techniques.

Constitution Of The Oversight Committee:

The Executive Committee in its meeting held on July 25, 2021 directed the Convenor to constitute an Oversight Committee to be chaired by a former Chief Justice of a High Court to review the observations and recommendations of the Subjects Expert Committee. Accordingly the Oversight Committee was constituted comprising deans, professors, and vice-chancellors as renowned experts in the areas of each section of CLAT.

Final Decision undertaken Regarding Objections Filed:

On July 27, 2021 the Subejct Expert Committees recorded its observations and recommendations regarding the objections filed by aggrieved students. Consequently, the Oversight Committee accepted all the recommendations of the Subject Expert Committee on Question Number 143 of UG and recommended for the deletion of the said question. The Committee also accepted the recommendation on Question Numbers 86 and 145 of UG and 116 of PG and further recommended a requisite amendment to the Answer Keys.

However, the Oversight Committee overruled two recommendations of the Subject Expert Committee on Question Numbers 61 and 98 respectively. There were two correct answers to both these questions (61 and 98) in the options provided. The Subject Expert Committee had recommended for the deletion of both the questions, but the Oversight Committee recommended that both the options be deemed to be correct and requisite amendments be made in the Final Answer Key.

Accordingly, the Executive Committee of the Consortium met on July 27, 2021 at 04.00 P.M. and unanimously accepted the recommendations of the Oversight Committee and directed the Convenor to release the Final Answer Key.

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