Supreme Court will pronounce its judgement on Monday on a plea challenging NLAT 2020 entrance test, conducted by NLSIU
Today, the Supreme Court was hearing the plea challenging the decision of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru to conduct its law admissions this year on the basis of its independent National Law Aptitude Test (NLAT) scores instead of CLAT.
A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice MR Shah was hearing a petition by NLSIU’s former Vice Chancellor, Prof (Dr) R Venkata Rao and aspiring parents of CLAT abrupt withdrawal from NLATU Bangalore from CLAT 2020 and separate NLAT 2020 examination.
On 3 September, NLSIU , Bangalore announced its decision to conduct a separate examination for admission to the five-year B.A LL.B (Hons) course for the academic year 2020-21. The new exam called was conducted online on 12 September.
Senior Advocates Arvind Datar and Sajan Powaiya appeared for the University and for the Vice Chancellor of the University. Advocate Datar made his presentation about not requiring the consent of the Academic Council for the operation of the NLAT and stated that the Executive Council is required to amend the NLSIU rules only for Academics Council’s consent was needed.
Datar initially raised the issue of locus and submitted that NLAT should be challenged by CLAT itself. But, the petitioners were former VCs. On the aspect of maintenance, Datar said that the vice-chancellor was not associated with NLAT and yesterday, he wrote to NLSIU saying that the amount of Rs 4 crore should be transferred.
Datar continued said that NLSIU violated the rules, “Where is the provision for holding a general body meeting? Where is the provision for transferring funds to Hyderabad? What about the conduct of the consortium?
Powaiya said that the AI protected examination was systematically tested by the university and that all students who were involved in misconduct were disqualified. On 11 September, a Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan allowed the National Law School of India to conduct the Test-NLAT 2020 for admission as per the schedule scheduled on 12 September.
However, the bench has barred the administration from declaring the results and granting admission. The court issued a notice. Advocates Sughosh Subramaniam and Vipin Nayyar have said that such a “unilateral decision” of NLSIU to conduct a separate examination has emboldened CLAT 2020 candidates and is a serious violation of their fundamental rights, including arbitrary actions. Against Article 14 includes the right to protection from the state and under Article 21 the right to education and other concurrent rights.
The Supreme Court will pronounce its judgement on Monday.
By Priya Kumari
