'Concurrence Of Academic Council Not Needed For NLAT' : Sr Adv Arvind P Datar Submits For NLSIU

Responding to the arguments of the petitioners against the National Law Aptitude Test(NLAT), Senior Advocate Arvind P Datar made submissions before the Supreme Court on behalf of the National Law School of India University(NLSIU).

Taking the bench through the provisions of the NLSIU Act, Datar submitted that the Executive Council needs to take the concurrence of the Academic Council only to amend the regulations of the NLSIU; there was no amendment made to the regulations made to hold NLAT. Therefore, Datar submitted, there was no need for the Executive Council to take the concurrence of the Academic Council for NLAT as argued by the petitioners.

There are no regulations framed with respect to admission test, Datar told a bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and M R Shah.

After briefly hearing Datar on this point, the bench said that it will continue the matter tomorrow at 11. 30 AM.

Earlier in the day, the bench heard Senior Advocates Nidhesh Gupta and Gopal Sankaranarayanan for the petitioners(report about their arguments may be read here).

On September 11, the Supreme Court had said that it will examine the legality of the decision and restrained NLSIU from publishing the results of NLAT and conducting admissions on its basis, while allowing it to hold the test on September 12. 

It was on September 3 that the NLSIU issued the revised admission notification stating that it will not accept CLAT scores for admissions to the academic year 2020-21 and that the same will be based on the NLAT.

The NLSIU cited the repeated postponement of CLAT on account of COVID-19 as a reason for the decision behind the separate test. It said that the University is under a compulsion to complete the admission process by September end, as it follows a trimester system distinct from other National Law Universities.

The complete updates from the hearing may be read here.