CLAT postponed for 3rd time to 1-21st July over ‘ecosystem uncertainties’ • Starts Telegram channel to connect to the kids

CLAT postponed yet again, perhaps to some day in July (via CLAT website)
CLAT postponed yet again, perhaps to some day in July (via CLAT website)

Again, very few surprises to anyone as the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2020 has again announced that it would postpone its exam from 21 June to some indeterminate point after 1 July, in light of the ongoing and extended Covid-19 crisis and lockdowns.

The consortium noted:

This decision has been taken after taking into account the uncertainties regarding the lockdown, travel to chosen centres, financial issues brought upon by the virus spread, unpredictability around the dates for Board exams and several such issues raised by students.

Ecosystem has been as uncertain for the exam organizers as the takers and we hope to aid students with whatever is in our control. Until then, keep safe, prepare well, and do not believe any news coming out of non-official channels.

A month ago, the CLAT had been postponed for the second time to 21 June.

Today, the CLAT consortium announced on its website that the new application submission deadline would be 1 July, and that a new examination date would be announced at least before then, with at least 21 days’ of notice.

That means, that the next scheduled date could fall any date between 1 and 22 July.

The LSAT meanwhile, which is much smaller than the CLAT, has currently targeted 14 June 2020 to hold its admissions test entirely online.

While the CLAT may not be up for an online exam, the consortium is moving with the times in other ways.

Much like the Government of India for its Covid-19 channel (and Legally India’s very own news alerts Telegram channel), the CLAT consortium has also started two Telegram channels with updates:

The former channel has amassed nearly 22,000 subscribers since starting only around six days ago, after 12 May 2020.

Comments

Firm 19 May 2020, 06:08
+0 -0
Unfortunate, but all for the best. Doesn't make sense to execute something of this scale in a hurry.
Guest 19 May 2020, 07:40
+0 -0
Why not make it online like LSAT?
Guest 19 May 2020, 07:59
+6 -0
Because there are thousands of applicants who lack access to the technology and devices necessary to give such an exam.
Guest 19 May 2020, 08:02
+10 -1
The fact that the Jindal VC and senior faculty are going all over the news and saying how every competitive entrance exam should be made online in 2020, just like LSAT, goes on to show that they lack in knowledge about and empathy for the real India and the bulk of the country including applicants lacking access to such sophisticated technology and machines. Talk about ivory tower academics! Either they are more naive than they have got any right to be, or completely insensitive to the real country. I don't know what's worse!
Guest 19 May 2020, 16:29
+2 -1
Also, don't know how many of you readers know this or not but Jindal began and failed to continue holding its classes online. Many NLUs pulled it off.

Jiggles se hota kuch hai nahin, bas batein karaa lo inse. Please let this fly Kian despite your corporate overlords.
Guest 19 May 2020, 16:55
+0 -0
This is curious. Why couldn't the online classes happen? Given the demography of Jindal students, accessibility wouldn't have been an issue. So what went wrong?
Jiggles 20 May 2020, 02:09
+1 -2
Oh really? Love how outsiders seem to know everything that going on in the college. Anyway I'm off to my Online Class which begins at 8M :)
Guest 19 May 2020, 08:37
+2 -26
Enough with this "access" bullshit. Just make the test online like JGLS. There will be maximum 100 CLAT test takers from poor families with no computer at home. They can borrow old laptops . We can start a Lend a Laptop campaign on Facebook for them. They can pay a refundable deposit of Rs 5,000, which will be returned after use.
Ambedk Christmas Ghost 19 May 2020, 09:22
+19 -2
"Access bullshit"? "100 students with no computer at home"? Are you for real? I would have said that I really hope you don't end up joining any law school, but the truth is that you are in sore need of education. The people who were in charge of your education so far in life have clearly done a sub-par job, which has led you to turn blind by privilege, completely lacking in empathy towards those less privileged, arrogant with a capital A, ignorant about anything outside your sphere of comfort, no doubt provided by people other than your own self. I shudder to think that the likes of you would probably rely on their privilege to actually become a decision maker some day in society. "Borrow old laptops", "refundable deposit of 5k", my god! This is beyond trolling, this is actually what happens when upbringing goes wrong.

For the benefit of others and not this troll, even a single organisation like IDIA trains more than 100 underprivileged CLAT aspirants every year, most of whom lack even two square meals a day, let alone computers, internet facility, necessary training to set up and go through such a crucial exam online. Just a single organisation, which caters to less than 1% of the aspirants in country. Think about that. Forget about aspirants, a large section of the current NLU students are facing problems handling assessments and exams online, even after having been better trained to handle technology. All of which are because of "access bullshit", as the troll so eloquently put. There should really be some form of IQ or educational qualifications for being able to comment, in the absence of which this place is really going to the dogs.

@Kian: Really? You know better than this. This is and would have been such a trigger to those who have been fighting for so long against even the existing access issues of CLAT, including the likes of Shamnad, had he still been alive!
Guest 19 May 2020, 09:47
+5 -3
@3: Enough with this privilege bullshit. Those who survive and thrive (or thrived) on parental charity and mistake it for entitlement should stay confined within places like Jindal and not try to dictate how the rest of the country and entrance exams for institutions running on public funds should be run.
Winston Churchill 19 May 2020, 11:49
+2 -1
Mary Antoinette, is that you? Our thoughts are so similar.
Amitansh Kumar 19 May 2020, 10:46
+2 -0
the notice say the date will be announced on 1st July and they'll give a minimum time of 21 days. It won't happen between 1 and 21. it will happen after 21.
@Guest 19 May 2020, 11:44
+2 -10
People are making too much hoopla about access for no reason. This exam is not meant for students from marginal economic strata of the society.

An exam which charges 4,000 for just the entrance exam and then charge several lakhs over a period of 5 years is not meant for the poor lot. Don't think you are doing anybody a favour by trying to be the righteous one here by arguing for an offline exam. If some poor chap is somehow able to scrape the fee for the exam, it's his poor as* that will be shut in a govt hospital if he catches corona. So save your pity for somewhere else or talk about concrete changes and stop living in bubble where an offline exam is an access issue when the entire exam is a mockery of the marginalized. NLUs, Non-NLUs, JGLS in terms of Indian context, all are harbingers of privilege, the issue is just that in India everybody considers them to be of lower or middle class.
I belong to one of the top 3 NLUs and while we were never rich, if my peers are to be stacked in terms of economic prosperity, I fall within the bottom quartile. Yet, I am constantly amazed how many of my friends here would crib about privilege of people from Amity, Jindal, Symby and the list goes on. They just keep on cribbing this while spending 500 bucks on burger and coke. My dad had to take out a loan against our home to send me to law school, and it just frustrates me, how everybody here thinks of themselves to be dirt poor, while wearing those Blackberry suits, with iPhones, and fancy laptops and gizmos on their side.
And, damn you, if you can afford a cigarette every day, you are rich by my standard, and you don't get to spread this nonsense rhetorical about privelege. Just for heaven's sake keep your mouth shut.
Guest 19 May 2020, 12:33
+7 -0
Don't try to show yourself as a victim or belonging to marginal groups among your peer groups. You people get upset at the thought of losing status quo when students from marginalised groups somehow manage to study beside you and share the same classroom. Your entire argument is since CLAT already makes it difficult for certain sections, therefore there's no big deal if it's made even more difficult. With that kind of logic, your claim of studying at a tier one law school seems dubious. If your friends crib about accessibility issues while making ostentatious display of their wealth, then you should get better friends. And you would of course like to see yourself as the 'struggling' person here compared to your richie rich peers. But the fact that you've actually managed to secure a loan and study at the NLUs without your family going broke in the process still makes you more privileged than most. Thankfully, there are people who are currently trying to improve accessibility or fighting against authorities to do so, instead of whining like you. That's why the scene is at least improving a little bit, though not much. Otherwise you and your privileged and ultra privileged ilk would definitely like everyone else to shut up and toe your line. Guess what, we won't do that and we aren't going away either. If that causes discomfort to you, then you can cry us a river, nobody cares.
@Guest 19 May 2020, 15:57
+1 -3
1) I never denied that I am priveleged. I said it outright that I am not port. It's there and I don't have edit priveleges.
2) Totally cheering for you and the other folks here all the way. Let me know when your post on LI help these kids.
3) I know I have opened the can, and I will get the vitriol but I don't mind it. After reading, Guest, I do accept, however, my criticism is similar to the rich folks here.
4) There is one thing that many of you have missed. Till the time the exam has a reasonable fee and NLUs have a sort of need based policy or something this won't work. My cousin is a graduate of IIT Bombay and their alumunus have set up a need based loan. Students need to pay it back ( market rate interest is applicable only if students get a decent enough paying job). Inside IIT-B there are people who help these kids with things like basic communication, computer and other skill. I did start something like this for a small time. it wasn't organized or something, I was just helping few juniors who were not from so affluent background in writing cover letters, figuring out how to apply for internships and stuff like that. I could have done a lot more but I didn't. At times, just because I felt like these were gone cases (yeah I am not that optimist about all of us making it), at times I was busy, at times I felt I just needed some free time and didn't feel like helping. Once again I am selfish too. No harm there.
5) I just hope you are not one of those little goody two shoes working at a Tier I firm, helping robber baron rake more moolah and at the same time arguing with me how I am the personification of evil itself.
NLUJ 19 May 2020, 12:54
+1 -0
I really doubt whatever you're saying, other than that some people pretending to be "middle class" when they are anything but.

There are people from the marginalised castes in my college, students who aren't able to afford much let alone have houses with enough value to avail credit against. The only reason they are able to study in NLUJ is because the State Government runs scholarship schemes for such children, in addition to efforts from IDIA and other organisations.

What you've just done - if what you say is true, is do what you accuse others of. I've seen some of the aforementioned students develop massively in terms of their academic strength - some after having struggled at first, and also personality wise. The confidence I've seen develop in them makes me feel like my college really does add value to the life of people even if I perceive it to have added none to mine.

Don't be a terrible person. Stop living in a constant state of self-pity. Care about others, you often don't know what their struggles are until you make an effort to find out or even look around.
Dumb LI headline 19 May 2020, 12:31
+1 -0
Considering the Consortium often said they would announce it on 1 July (it's a mix between on and by), and that registrations have been extended till 1 July, along with the fact that exams can't happen on the day of final registrations or at least a few days after it, it's pretty stupid of LI to mislead people with saying that it will be between 1-21 July. Just say unlikely before 21 July or somewhere after mid-July. You're stressing out students with such a headline.
Guest 19 May 2020, 13:04
+2 -2
How about allowing exams by smartphones instead of laptops? The TikTok phenomenon shows most people from lower social groups have access to smartphones these days.
Guest 20 May 2020, 05:50
+1 -8
Let CLAT go ahead online. The small minority without access to computers will have to suffer. Sorry about that. This is an emergency. You cannot make everyone happy. Also, leftist SJW people please note that the crisis was started by a communist country who you never ever criticise.
Guest 20 May 2020, 06:13
+3 -0
'Social Justice Warriors' aren't welcome in Communist countries. We don't support that country. We don't speak against it because it isn't our country. India is, and we speak to try and better it (almost) just like you, I hope.

So, no - CLAT shouldn't happen online to make you 'happy'. Also, I am at a law school; a good one, and I hope that the likes of you can't make it here with your majoritarian tendencies.
Guest 20 May 2020, 09:57
+3 -0
I would rather you suffer than that 'small minority'. Because whichever law school you may end up in or don't, it looks like you are destined to make everyone around you keep suffering with your opinions and existence.
Guest 20 May 2020, 08:10
+0 -2
No more further postponement! It will harm careers because the internship period for first year students will be scrapped. Why are are views of law aspirants not being considered? Law aspirants will have to take matters in their hands and complaint to Law Minister directly. #HaveCLATNow #NoMoreDelay
Guest 20 May 2020, 09:56
+3 -0
If you are an example of such aspirant, it's better for the country that your views are not being sought. I think you should start doing your internship right now. Chances of you learning anything over the next year seems unlikely.