Supreme Court petition sparks a debate on CLAT

Students coming out after appearing for CLAT (Common Law Admissions Test) examinations 2021, for both PG and UG course, Conducted by Consortium of National Law Universities, at National Law school of India University (NLSIU), Nagarabhavi, in Bengaluru.
| Photo Credit: K. Murali Kumar

A recently disposed-of petition in the Supreme Court challenging the correctness of the provisional answer key in the postgraduate level Common Law Admission Test (CLAT PG) exams held on December 1 has sparked a debate.

CLAT is a national level entrance exam for admissions to undergraduate and postgraduate law programmes offered by 24 National Law Universities in the country. Exam is organised by the Consortium of National Law Universities (CNLUs), comprising representative universities.

The petition before the Supreme Court filed by Anam Khan and Ayush Agarwal had alleged the provisional answer key of CLAT PG exams, released on December 2, contained significant errors, including incorrect answers to 12 questions.

Persons associated with CNLUs’ legal representation in the case said the final answer key was out by the time the case came up for hearing before the court on December 9. They said the petition was refused by the top court on the ground of maintainability. The court had orally remarked that litigation in the apex court concerning national exams tended to delay declaration of results.

“As per CLAT Calendar, final answer key was to be released on December 9, 2024. The CLAT 2025 results were to be released on December 10, 2024. The admission counselling process was to commence from December 11, 2024 onwards. However, Consortium preponed release of final answer key and results and released both of them on the same night, on December 7. The provisional answer key had apparent mistakes which were not resolved even in the final answer key,” advocate Manasi Bhushan, who appeared for the petitioners in the apex court, maintained.

On December 9, a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna refused to entertain the writ petition filed under Article 32 of the Constitution. It gave the petitioners liberty to approach the jurisdictional High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution.

“There are precedents when the Supreme Court has promptly adjudicated and granted interim relief in petitions challenging pan-India exam conduction. In my opinion it becomes easier to seek relief [like stay] from the apex court as relief is applicable all across India. Seeking relief before High Court/s may create difficulty in terms of conflicting judgments and operation of stay only for that state’s jurisdiction,” advocate Bhushan said.

Corporate lawyer-turned-CLAT mentor, Nishant Prakash, whose students bagged five of the top 10 ranks across CLAT and All India Law Entrance Test this year, alleged that the CLAT undergraduate or CLAT UG exam was also “conducted in an equally unprofessional manner”.

“Four questions of the Logical Reasoning section were absolutely wrong which were later retracted by the Consortium in the final answer key. Three more answers in the provisional answer keys were changed later upon the grievances raised by the students. I strongly believe that the Consortium cannot be absolved just by withdrawing these questions as the majority of students land up wasting time trying these questions and could not complete the paper,” he said.

However, Prof. Dr. S Shanthakumar, Director of the Gujarat National Law University and vice-president, Governing Body of CNLUs, assured that “extreme care is always taken to avoid mistakes”.

“In law, the questions and the answer options in the paper are interpreted differently by different people,” Mr. Shanthakumar explained.

He said there had been no delay in declaration of CLAT 2025 results.