On Monday 21 September supreme Court  quashed the decision of National Law School of India University, Bengaluru (NLSIU) to hold a separate entrance exam, National Law Aptitude Test (NLAT) for admission to its the 5 years integrated LLB programme and the postgraduate LLM programme in place of Common Law Admissions Test (CLAT).

 

A 3-judge bench headed by justice Ashok Bhushan, justices R Subhash Reddy and MR Shah set aside the September 3 notification issued by NLSIU which had announced NLAT in place of CLAT.

The bench ordered NLSIU to carry out admissions as per CLAT and ordered that admissions should be completed by the mid of October.

The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) is a centralised national level entrance test for admissions to 23 NLUs in India. Bengaluru's National Law School of India University (NLSIU) is one of them.

However, NLSIU decided that it would hold a separate entrance test this year, the NLAT, in view of the delay in conducting CLAT due to Covid-19. A notification was also issued on September 3 announcing its decision to hold NLAT.

“Candidates will be selected on the basis of the aggregate marks secured in an online home-based Entrance Examination known as NLAT.

The NLAT 2020 will test applicants for admission to the undergraduate B.A., LL.B. (Hons), and postgraduate LL.M programmes commencing in 2020,” the notification said.

It also made it clear that NLSIU will not accept CLAT 2020 scores for admission for the academic Year 2020-21.  According to the notification, NLSIU preferred to opt-out of CLAT this year because it has to complete admissions before the end of September 2020 failing which it will inevitably result in a ‘Zero Year’ with no admission.

However It observed that universities are not powerless to modify their academic calendar looking to the pandemic situation.

The institution contended that NLSIU is premium university  which follows a trimester system with 3 terms of 90 days duration.

“Each term must accommodate 60 hours of classroom instruction in each course and adequately provide for examination and evaluation processes.

Further, the academic offering for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th year of the B.A., LL.B programme as well as the LL.M programme is fully integrated and requires a common academic calendar,” the notification explained.

Later another notification was issued stipulating technical requirements for writing the exam. As per the notification, candidates should have a computer system with a minimum internet bandwidth of 1 Mbps and exams can be given using laptops or desktops alone with integrated webcam and microphone. Further, only Windows operating system would be allowed.

The applicant Dr. Venkat Rao, who was a former Vice-Chancellor at NLSIU, approached the Supreme Court challenging NLAT stating that the decision taken by the Executive Council of NLSIU to conduct NLAT was illegal and without any legal authority.

The apex court had on September 11 given its go ahead to NLSIU Bengaluru to hold its separate exam, which was to be held on September 12, but restrained it from announcing the results and admitting any student till the pendency of the plea.

In its 107-pages judgement, the bench said NLSIU Bengaluru was required to obtain recommendation of the academic council before proceeding to hold NLAT by issuing the notification dated September 3.

This news has been reported by Ms. Suheena & Edited by Ms. Samreen Ahmed, Research Assistant, Research & Innovation Department (ARIL), MyLawman