Delhi HC grants relief to CLAT-PG candidates, asks to declare results soon

The Delhi High Court on Friday granted relief to CLAT-PG candidates over alleged discrepancies in the answer key and directed the consortium of NLUs to declare results soon.

A bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela's decision came over the plea of students in relation to a couple of answers in the key.

The court, however, rejected the objection with respect to the declared answer to a third question, and asked the consortium of national law universities (NLUs) to accordingly award marks to the candidates.

The court passed the order while deciding three pleas seeking rectification of errors in the final answer key of the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT)-PG 2025.

The bench's verdict highlighted the issue of a high fee of Rs 1,000 charged by the consortium per question for raising the objection to the provisional answer key, observing there ought to be a "fine balance" between the concerns of the candidates and the institutions.

While comparing the fee charged for objected questions by other organisations, the fees sought by the consortium "appeared to be excessive and disproportionate" but the consortium's concern that it was required to keep frivolous individuals and coaching institutes at bay also did not appear to be "fanciful or imaginative", it added.

The bench, however, expected the consortium to take heed of its observations and take appropriate steps to "avoid such excessive fee in the next examinations".

"It may be advisable for the consortium to place this issue before the committee headed by Justice G. Raghuram (retd) for his valuable opinion which may be adhered to by it," the bench said.

The court ruled on the correctness of the answers in the answer key after considering each question and the submissions made by the counsel for the petitioners and the consortium.

CLAT determines admissions to undergraduate and postgraduate law courses in national law universities in the country. CLAT PG 2025 was held on December 1, 2024.

Multiple pleas were filed in different high courts alleging several questions in the exam were wrong.

On February 6, the Supreme Court transferred all the petitions over the issue to the Delhi High Court for a "consistent adjudication".

The top court passed the direction on the transfer petitions of the consortium.