SC to tomorrow hear pleas challenging CLAT 2018 examination

The Supreme Court would tomorrow hear the petitions challenging the Common Law Admission Test 2018 (CLAT) held on May 13 and asked the petitioners to place before it the orders, if any, passed by six high courts on similar pleas.

A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and Navin Sinha asked the lawyers appearing for the petitioners to serve the copy of their pleas to the standing counsel appearing for the respondents, including the Centre.

The petitioners told the bench that the high courts of Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Bombay, Punjab and Haryana and Rajasthan, both the Jaipur and Jodhpur bench, were hearing separate pleas challenging the CLAT 2018 examination and notices have been issued in some of these matters.

CLAT is conducted for the purpose of admission to undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in law offered at premier national law schools of the country.

The examination was organised by CLAT working committee and implementation committee and the National University of Advanced Legal Studies (NUALS) and the 2018 results are expected to be declared on May 31.

"Have any reply, status report or orders been passed by any of these high courts? You find it out if you can. Just give us a compilation of orders, if any, passed by these high courts," the bench, which posted the matter for hearing tomorrow, told the counsel for the petitioners.

The petitioners have sought quashing of the CLAT 2018 examination besides a re-test alleging that several inconsistencies had cropped up during the test held on May 13.

The Jodhpur bench of the Rajasthan High Court had on May 21 issued notice on the plea challenging CLAT 2018 examination and said if the results were declared before May 29, it shall be subject to the outcome of the petition pending before it.

Similarly, the Delhi High Court had on May 22 sought responses from the Centre and the Bar Council of India (BCI) on a plea filed by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and two law students challenging the "inconsistently and negligently" conducted CLAT 2018 examination.

Several pleas have been filed challenging the CLAT 2018 examination alleging mismanagement and incompetency of the national law universities in conducting the test on a rotational basis.