LI NETWORK
Jharkhand High Court has dismissed Petition Demanding NLAT new Exam to be cancelled. National Law School of India University (NLSIU to conduct a separate admission Exam “National Law Aptitude Test” (NLAT). National Law School has backed out of the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) for want of jurisdiction.
The Jharkhand High Court single bench of Justice Rajesh Shankar reserved the Orders on Thursday on petition filed by 5 law aspirants from Jharkhand who challenged the decision of the NLSIU to hold a separate admission test.
Advocate Appearing for National Law School Senior Advocate Sajan Poovayya submitted to the High Court that the petition was pending before the Supreme Court. High Court sought all clarifications from Poovayya regarding the arrangements for the exam, and about the complaints of difficulties raised by the students. Poovayya informed the bench that all arrangments for the test have been made. Initially, there was a condition for having an internet speed of 1 Mbps. This was later revised as 512 Kbps.
Moreover it is contended that the move is violative of clause 15.7 (Voluntary withdrawal of member institution) of the bye laws of the Consortium of NLUs. It was on September 3 that the National Law School of India University, Bangalore, announced its decision to hold a separate test for admission to five year B.A LL.B(Hons) course for the academic year 2020-21. The new test called the ‘National Law Aptitude Test’ (NLAT) is proposed to be held online on September 12. The Petitioners have urged the Court to set aside this decision and to grant ad-interim, ex-parte stay on the effect and operation of the notice during pendency of the petition.
Justice Shankar replied that he was not interested in anyone else’s opinion and wanted to know the difficulties faced by the petitioners. When the counsel mentioned about internet glitches, Poovayya assured that all such issues have been addressed. “Any student who gets logged out for a few minutes, students will not be removed from the examination”, he submitted. The petition was filed by 5 CLAT aspirants from Jharkhand, stating that NLSIU’s decision to withdraw from CLAT and to hold a separate examination, despite being a “permanent member” of the NLU Consortium, is unlawful and arbitrary.
The Petitioners have contended that the University has changed its stance after filling of the CLAT forms and is thus in violation of principle of promissory estoppel. Further, declaration of new pattern of examination by the University, around 10 days before the declared date of CLAT, is illegal and against the established precedents of the Supreme Court for the conduct of “fair and just examination”.