NLSIU Bangalore has made a press release about the conclusion of the dramatic retakes of the National Law Aptitude Test (NLAT) today, claiming a successful run yet again but declining to confirm how many actually sat for the re-takes.
That is despite a PDF of all the exam questions spreading online within barely 20 minutes of the start of the test and persistent unanswered questions and worrying facts about the circumstances of the re-take itself, after the actual exam was marred by technical issues.
It also finally confirmed what seemed to have been the case all along. Nearly everyone who had registered any complaints about the exam was “offered the opportunity to appear for another examination” today, “out of abundant caution”.
The latest press release is headlined, “NLAT 2020 Examination Process Completed”, but that may be overselling it slightly. On Saturday, the NLAT had also claimed in a release that the NLAT had been “successfully completed on September 12”.
Of course, with a pending Supreme Court petition (and a high court writ petition having filed for inclusion in it) there’s no guarantee that the entire NLAT process is indeed complete (though judges are well known to be loathe to interfere with examinations that have already happened).
Why NLS needs to confirm some numbers
In a marked contrast, in Saturday’s press release NLS was not afraid to showcase some numbers: 24,603 candidates for the undergraduate programme, of whom 23,225 (94.4%) actually appeared.
The only figure included in today’s press release was that “nearly 80% of the candidates who were offered an additional slot appeared for the exam” retake.
However, that number is fundamentally meaningless without the following information, which we have repeatedly requested from NLSIU:
- How many candidates filled in the complain form before the deadline of noon on Sunday?
- How many candidates were offered a retake?
- How many of those candidates tried to sign in to take the retake exam earlier today?
- How many of those successfully submitted the exam after having attempted all questions?
- How many of the candidates that appeared today, were not counted as having ‘appeared’ for Saturday’s NLAT?
If NLS is striving to provide transparency, those numbers are vital in demonstrating how bad (or limited, as may be the case) the technical problems on Saturday actually were.
We have requested a comment and those numbers from NLS several times today but understand the university will not be confirming those numbers, at least not today.
First delay creeps into NLAT timetable
Since our story of this morning pointing it out, NLS has adjusted its exam timetable on its exam portal to delete the item that had promised release of the merit list by Tuesday, 15 September.
Instead, it now mentions for 16 September: “Notification of Results and Provisional Admission List by Email subject to further orders of the Court.”
The press release concludes with: “The release of admission results will be subject to further orders of the Supreme Court on September 16, in WP (Civil 1030/2020).
Full press release PDF copy here (and screenshotted image of release below).
Comments
'Cuz you've gone ahead and stolen my own pseudonym!
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The paper was already floating through telegram groups...But still NLSIU denies this..
With the exam getting postponed..we have to keep up with the current affairs too..and have to keep attempting mocks..We never got a break since boards..
Just don't complicates stuff more..
Get out while you still can.
P.S. : Even I don't think it will be scrapped because SC very rarely and reluctantly scraps any examination especially one that's been conducted. Don't have much expectations from this.
Though I hope Gopal and ors. can convince them otherwise.
In my humble opinion, arguments of accessibility is a farce in the face of the fact that not many families can afford the expensive education that these five year law schools now offer. The hypocrites arguing for accessibility should also think about arguing the exhorbitant fees for Clat and the five year program in a poor country like India, about the astoundingly low number of students that these elite schools intake in a country of billions while spending crores. I look at the thousand strong JD programs in US, and can only hope that the Indian government attempts to bring in more students to these world class campuses we have created.
I was always bombarded with defensive arguments against increasing the batch sizes during my law school days, so save your breaths. I am aware of your insecurities. Let me rant after a long day.
NLS, I wish that you are able to prove the integrity of exam. And I hope that you permanently think about becoming more accessible like this. Lets face it, an exam that can be taken from anywhere in the world is better and more accessible than an exam that can only be taken at select centres, where once I had to travel about 7 hours and spend about 1200 of my parents hard earned money.
All the best.
The technical requirements were amended to make the exam more accessible. Same reason for physical centres based on action. Also, not sure which world you are living in but I don't always need to purchase a laptop by spending 14k (yes that's how cheap they are available if you want to buy it) to give an exam. The next door neighbors, the cyber cafe in the nearest city is much more accessible than a centre seven hours away.
I do read before submitting. If I may suggest, you should attempt to understand counter views, and how things happen practically too instead of copying the arguments spouted by motivated people here.