Exclusive: CLAT now unlikely to be held any time soon*

The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2020 has been postponed indefinitely for now, according to a notification by the committee, an early copy of which we have seen.

Update 21:30: Unlike the draft copy that we had published earlier, the official notification does not commit to announcing a new date by 1 September but literally postpones the CLAT indefinitely “until further notice”. While we understand that mid-September had been discussed in the meeting as a potential and tentative date, in light of the unpredictable and constantly developing Covid-19 situation and lockdowns, it seems reasonable that the consortium did not want to formally announce or commit to that.

As we had reported on Monday, the CLAT consortium’s committee of national law university (NLU) vice chancellors (VC) had held a meeting today to decide the fate of the 22 August test, against a backdrop of lockdowns in several states and a central government order prima facie preventing mass academic gatherings.

Several NLUs’ VCs, for instance, had expressed concerns about lockdowns in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, scheduled for the entire month, and several VCs we had spoken to over the past weeks had repeatedly stressed that the safety of candidates should come first.

The postponement will be a relief to those aspirants who may have had concerns about braving a physical exam centre in the midst of a pandemic.

On the other hand, some other candidates may have wanted to just get the exam, which they may have long prepared for, over with.

For the NLUs themselves, the delay will also be a major concern: most would have been hoping (Covid notwithstanding) to begin the new semester for freshers in early September 2020.

That is now all but impossible on the current roadmap.

Update 21:15: The official website and social media channels have now been updated with the announcement above, which is slightly different from the draft announcement we had published earlier.

Notably, it does not commit to announce any date in September anymore but actually postpones it indefinitely “until further notice”.

Update 23:40: The above notification seems to now have been removed from social media channels and the website of the CLAT. We will update this article when we hear anything.

Update 23:53: The website has been updated, noting that registrations have closed and that the exam has been “postponed until further notice”. Telegram and other social media channels have not yet been re-updated.

The older, superseded draft announcement