The 2020 CLAT has been nothing if not dramatic.

Besides the short-lived National Law Aptitude Test (NLAT), there is now a pending Supreme Court petition by complainants about the results.

And as yet, there is still no official confirmation from the CLAT on how many technical complaints actually had been received about the exam, with reports ranging from 400, to thousands, to 40,000 according to two newspapers. If a true figure, the latter is likely to be an over-estimate that is also including complaints against errors or wrong answers to questions, of which the CLAT had eventually confirmed seven.

Nevertheless, some achievements in the CLAT deserve to be celebrated.

12 IDIA scholars to get NLU admission

The Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access (IDIA) charity, which encourages students from underprivileged backgrounds to apply for law schools and to crack law entrance tests, has announced that at least two of its scholars have scored high in the CLAT.

Jai Singh Rathor, who comes from Patna’s Jai district, has scored the third All India Rank (AIR) in the exam. According to an IDIA press release: “Jai overcame many issues including financial struggles to emerge as one of the toppers! His father runs a small grocery shop (kirana shop) and his mother is a homemaker.”

The 48th AIR was cracked by IDIA scholar Yashwant Kumar. IDIA said: “Yashwant hails from a village called Mosaurhi, in Patna district, Bihar. His father, who is a mechanic and manufactures some machine parts, is the only earning member of the family. These students have fought many odds and crossed numerous hurdles to crack CLAT.”

Soumya from the Penugonda village in Telangana, scored an All India PWD Rank of 20. Her parents are farmers and “she faced lot of hurdles in her preparation due to her visual impairment and the economic challenges faced by her”, said IDIA.

In total, IDIA said in its press release that around 12 of its scholars this year were expected to get a seat at an national law university (NLU) this year.