Déjà vu: Supreme Court NLAT bench to hear CLAT challenge Friday, with Gopal Sank’n

Scoop: Justices Bhushan, Reddy, Shah to get an update on what has happened since NLAT

CLAT challenge to be heard Friday
CLAT challenge to be heard Friday

The Supreme Court petition by several Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) aspirants challenging the exam over technical issues and results, is listed to be heard on Friday (9 October), according to the court’s cause list.

In a virtual repeat of the the successful Supreme Court challenge against the abortive National Law Aptitude Test (NLAT) only a few weeks ago, the virtual hearing will take place in court number 4, before justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and MR Shah.

As a refresher, that bench struck had down the NLAT, with a 100+ page judgment and after two days of hearing, while also ordering the CLAT Consortium to conduct the CLAT and “ensure that the entire process of declaration of the result be completed as early as possible to enable” NLSIU Bengaluru and other national law universities (NLUs) to “start their course by the mid of October-2020”.

In other words, the CLAT consortium might find itself in a bit of an awkward situation before their Lordships.

Also reprising his role is senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who had also appeared for petitioners in the NLAT.

We understand that Sankaranarayanan has now been instructed by advocate Ankita Chaudhary in the upcoming CLAT case. He declined to comment when contacted.

Appearing for the CLAT Consortium is senior counsel K Parameshwar (we believe he is one of the few faces who was not also in the NLAT matter).

Of course, in the NLAT petition, CLAT and the petitioners were effectively jointly arguing against NLSIU Bangalore. On Friday, they will be advancing their case on opposing sides.

Whatever else goes down, the schedule will be tight as the counselling process started early this morning and NLUs have been scheduling to have completed admissions by 14 October.

There are also several unanswered questions that would be valuable for the Consortium to address in court.

Our analysis published earlier today, for instance, showed that around 4,500 candidates scored less than 10 out of 147 points on the exam, while 40,000 scored below 30% of totals possible.

Comments

Guest 6 Oct 2020, 16:47
Contested
+28 -28
Excellent news! I again request everyone not to celebrate or be sad over the CLAT score, because CLAT will certainly be quashed. The merit list is worth less than toilet paper.
Abcantd 7 Oct 2020, 10:53
+17 -6
The chances of cancellation are negligible because a retest will take at least 2 months which may result in loss of an academic year. NLAT was cancelled because CLAT was scheduled within a few days hence it was extremely easy to do that. Cancelling CLAT would be extremely difficult. They are not comparable situations. In view of the miserable track record of CLAT the court should transfer it to NTA from next year onwards. What a pity that the so called learned VCS with decades of exp. cannot ensure a correct question paper for 12grade kids.
Reexam clat 7 Oct 2020, 11:26
+4 -8
Even if it is unreasonable, its unfair on the part of consortium to not effectively manage an online exam with not even 70k candidates. Even if the college starts late please do a fair exam.
Onlooker 2 7 Oct 2020, 16:52
+5 -12
The VCs like Faizan, PS Jaswal, Balraj and Vijaykumar of E.C. of Consortium are most efficient lot and it was because of their determination, grit and impeccable record of transparency that CLAT was successfully conducted through out India, that too during Covid-19 times.
Thor 8 Oct 2020, 05:44
+0 -0
May Odin grant them a place in VALHALLA straightaway.
Guest 6 Oct 2020, 16:56
+37 -4
[img]https://i.imgflip.com/4hjdrv.jpg[/img]
Guest 6 Oct 2020, 17:52
+19 -3
Shouldn't he be bawling his heart out now, since his precious trimester is gone and he's time and again admitted that he's now a man without a plan?
Guest1 7 Oct 2020, 01:04
+6 -24
"Merit list is worth less than toilet paper" because I wasn't able to crack the examination. Certainly, pig-ignorant people like you wouldn't be able to crack it anyway because of the lack of comprehension skills which you have manifested by not reading the instructions before the examination. Instead of trying to cover up your failures by howling about something which didn't happen, how about you start looking for a college which will take you in with that insolent, blame-shifting and arrogant attitude?
Reexam clat 7 Oct 2020, 11:25
+5 -5
Its a very ignorant comment, or are u a clat consortium troll cuz u r disregarding genuine issues faced by candidates
Guest 7 Oct 2020, 00:27
+0 -4
Pennywise
Blahblah 6 Oct 2020, 20:36
+21 -21
If only these challengers had cared to read the explicit instructions given by the Consortium on the examination day they wouldn't be trying to wreck the future of thousands of students who did read it. Atleast 20 minutes were provided to read the instructions on the desktop at the examination day and it took 2 mins for me to read them. These people are just enshrouding their ignoramus attitude and incompetency by using the avenue of petitions.
Okay 7 Oct 2020, 02:19
+15 -12
Exactly. And some of their claims are too much. A girl claimed she was getting 129 and she got 3. So, apparently she was going to be AIR 1?! With this petition they have lost the support from the aspirants who scored well and also decreased the chance of any viable relief like audit trail handover etc.
Raj9987 7 Oct 2020, 04:20
+11 -7
We read and followed all instructions and still getting less than what we marked and ought to get. Thousands of students have this issue.
Guest 7 Oct 2020, 04:55
+14 -9
Thousands? Name 500.
Flushed ur comment in 7 Oct 2020, 08:07
+4 -4
Did you happen to take the exam? Were you in the examination hall? Dont be arm chair theorist. You might end with ignoranus 2020 award.
Guest1 7 Oct 2020, 10:48
+9 -4
Yes, I took the examination hence the comment.
I wouldn't be howling like an idiot here if I hadn't appeared for it.
Lol 7 Oct 2020, 14:05
+1 -4
You took examination? Hahaha. Kya mast joke maara re.
Guest1 7 Oct 2020, 15:39
+5 -1
Wow. Pretty intelligent retort you got there.
WTF 7 Oct 2020, 05:01
Contested
+5 -9
Is there Bar Council of India ethics (or not)? A senior counsel appears for the consortium and then against it?
Guest 7 Oct 2020, 05:35
+0 -1
I was just wondering about that myself. Did GShanks represent the consortium in the earlier matter or one of the other petitioners like RVR?
Wednesbury 7 Oct 2020, 06:35
+12 -0
Gshanks represented a candidate through a parent against NLAT. Here he is representing children who have issues with CLAT. How conflict?
Guest 7 Oct 2020, 07:11
+5 -0
Yes, I thought so myself. He didn't appear on behalf of the consortium in the earlier matter, so there's no conflict.
Gsank Rocks! 7 Oct 2020, 12:35
+4 -3
Awesome human being. Few who preserve the integrity and ethics of the legal profession.
Guest 7 Oct 2020, 05:06
+8 -4
The SC will not stop the CLAT process. It will appoint some retired SC or HC judge to Chair some sort of inquiry/grievance redressal committee. All complaints etc will be directed to this committee, which is mostly going to go with what CLAT has to say. Eventually the aggrieved students having the best resources to amplify or articulate their "grievances" will get entry. The rest will peter out.
Guest 7 Oct 2020, 05:38
+3 -1
https://thewire.in/law/an-extra-legal-league-of-extraordinary-gentlemen
Bob 7 Oct 2020, 07:10
+2 -0
K Parameshwar is the Advocate on Record for the consortium, not a senior counsel.
Guest 7 Oct 2020, 08:16
+5 -3
Wish to submit that CLAT Consortium in its latest press briefing has said that they have utilized the services of TCS which has got TCS iON is the most reputed Service Provider. It has track record of successfully conducting various
National Level Admission Tests and the Recruitment Tests such as JEE Mains, JEE
Advanced, NEET (PG), GATE, Banking Services Examinations e.t.c. If we see the normal practice as being followed for larger exams like IIT-JEE and NEET being conducted by NTA for many years the option " Answered and Marked for Review" is evaluated, their instructions is very clear in this regard https://www.nta.ac.in/Quiz . Hence in the same country how we can practice two norms. Here the question is not the option "Marked for Review" rather it is " Answered and Marked for Review" which is evaluated in all big sized exams. Suppose even if they claim that had given in their instructions, but in their first three mocks these instructions were not there, even if they had given in their last mocks, the students would not have paid due attention basically due to two reasons, first the things got diluted in the aftermath of NLAT, secondly very important that, Consortium had repeated same questions as earlier in their las mocks and as there was nothing new in it, Students would have taken it casually, One more valid point here is that there was no marks awarded for these mocks by Consortium , even if some of them practiced they would not have come to know its impact on their marks. Moreover reading instructions at centre is also not a valid point, keeping in view the scaring environment at the centers whereby kids were supposed to follow social distancing and this resulted in their reaching their seat late. In many cases the reporting time itself was mentioned as 1.45 PM, The other fiasco was removal of calculator during last few days, If this was not required, this should not have been introduced at first instance itself. So if not rectified these errors shall adversely impact the career of the kids,
Guest 7 Oct 2020, 09:35
+9 -3
In my opinion, arguing that one can't be expected to read instructions under stressful environment isn't going to get you far in a court of law.

Moreover, I doubt if there is any legal requirement that two different set of norms can't exist in separate exams.

Finally, anecdotal claims that X was going to score 129 but ended up with 3 are at best going to get you an 'expert committee' to oversee the grievances.
Guest 7 Oct 2020, 08:41
+8 -12
Let's pray and hope a retest happens.
No problem with clat 7 Oct 2020, 09:06
+9 -10
Absolutely not. Keep your [...] ideas with you and certainly do not try to ruin the future of those who have scored well in the exam
Guest 7 Oct 2020, 10:04
+5 -4
The consortium is horribly irresponsible
The paper had so many errors
Some questions were wrong but were not taken downxeven after objection
Answers mismatch
It's almost suspicious
Guest 7 Oct 2020, 11:24
+4 -7
Tbh i couldn't have been more pleased with the news. As a dropper myself, i had dropped a year and with issues ranging from not being able to change answers without pressing clear response and mark for review not being evaluated left me from a score sufficient from the top 3 nlus to not even worth the last 4 of the NLUs itself. (Its not to defame any of the nlus). The whole process has been inherently unfair to some genuine candidates who have suffered at the edge of it while consortium in a very arrogant fashion declared that there was nothing wrong with the software and even denied to correct or review its own technical mistakes. May the court grant relief on me and many more such aggrieved candidates and provide respite in times of such uncertain and hopeless time for the law aspirants with a re exam WITH A GOOD SOFTWARE.
2knowornot2know 7 Oct 2020, 11:24
+2 -1
As a kid, I used to talk about cave enders. Only after I spoke to someone who had been there did I know that it was Keventers (now Kev's - Satya Niketan).

People calling Gopal Sankaranarayan GShanks reminds me of that time.

Is GSanks doing these cases pro bono?
Guest 7 Oct 2020, 13:53
+3 -5
A rest has to to happen because thousands of students were denied a fair chance. The current merit list is full of undeserving people. It is a FRAUD LIST.
Guest 7 Oct 2020, 14:16
+2 -1
So file a complaint under IPC against the people who made it to the list.
Guest 7 Oct 2020, 18:46
+2 -5
I can name and shame the coaching centres which are flooding the net with fake news and propaganda against CLAT, but Kian will censor my comment.
Guest 8 Oct 2020, 04:43
+1 -1
Copy paste the original links and posts in support of your claim. Kian doesn't have any issue with verifiable facts when it comes to censorship.
Guest 8 Oct 2020, 03:23
+2 -5
The said petition must be rejected,keeping in mind,that the process of admission is delayed due to corona crisis. And if it will delayed further. The entire students of this batch will suffer with irrepairable loss. Because any court cannot compansate the time. Those who are very much interested in delaying the processes should have been directed to get them prepare for the next year.
Guest 8 Oct 2020, 17:01
+1 -2
The instructions were very clear. Each mock-exam starts with an instruction page and also the dashboard during the exam explicitly stated that the "Answered & Marked for review" would not be evaluvated. So clearly the contention that instructions were "inconvenient" an "confusing" does not seem valid. The other allegation was that the difference in the answers marked, in this case, SC may ask the consortium to make the audit trail available in a comprehenisble manner. The bottom line is , CLAT won't be quashed.