NLS press release on NLAT: All was well today • Its feedback form due by noon tomorrow (though categories vague) [UPDATE-1]

Saturday, 12 September 2020 By Legally India Pre-law student

NLSIU Bangalore has made a press release about the National Law Aptitude Test (NLAT) that it concluded today for 24,603 registered candidates for its flagship undergraduate LLB programme.

According to its release, 23,225 of those - or 94.4% - actually appeared for the undergraduate exam in three slots (the postgraduate NLAT saw 2,846 out of 2,935 registered candidates appear, or 97%).

NLS touted that both of these numbers were higher than last year’s physical exam-centre based Common Law Admission Test (CLAT), which it claimed had seen 90.92% and 85.23% attendance.

That may not quite be a fair comparison to make however.

If we assume that 100% of registered candidates registered for the NLAT wanted to take the exam and were ready in time, and that 4% were not able to take the exam due to technical difficulties, in an offline physical test centre world this would be akin to an exam centre closing the door on thousands of candidates standing outside, saying: sorry, but the venue is full.

The 94.4% figure also does not specify how many of those actually completed the test: there are several accounts of candidates who claim they were kicked off the exam for no reason whatsoever before they had completed it.

We have documented many of candidates’ problems on our live blog today.

Here’s how to appeal by noon tomorrow

However, just in case all wasn’t well for some of those candidates (at least 1,600 if going by their metrics), NLS has said:

Despite these overall numbers, we are aware that some candidates may have faced technical difficulties during the examination.

NLAT 2020 candidates may login to the admissions.nls.ac.in portal and raise a query by 12 noon on September 13, 2020.

A thorough technical review will be carried out and candidates will receive a response.

What will happen after such technical review (another exam slot perhaps?) is not at all clear, however…

Update 23:46: Once logged in to the candidate portal, you can click on a link which opens a message pop-up, including a field for your email and a dropdown box with six possible options about “queries/topics”.

The top issues in NLAT, according to NLAT

The following seem to officially be the top 5 issues that may have been faced in the exam:

“Login Issues”
“Issues during Exam” (which seems a little generic)
“Submission Issues”
“Forced Log Out”
“Exam did not commence on Time”

Some concerns: NLS seems to not have an option to select more than one issue. From what we understand, the number that faced “Issues during Exam” or for whom the “Exam did not commence on Time” might be far larger than the other categories, and potential supersets of the other three issues.

For instance, it is easily possible that some candidates had delays, login issues, submission issues, forced log out, as well as, simply, issues and other issues.

That’s not necessarily the best way of figuring out exactly what went wrong with the exam.

It is likely to be a busy Sunday at NLS and service provider Aon’s Cocubes subsidiary.

No cheaters will get admission, says NLS

The press release also denied that cheating was possible, or, more precisely that cheaters could make it through to the merit list undetected:

We assure all candidates and their parents that the technological systems and proctoring of NLAT 2020 were fully operational during the examination. Comprehensive digital records and technological parameters will be rigorously assessed for examination malpractice before any admission list is prepared.

We are confident that the combination of human and Al proctoring will ensure that the exam integrity will be maintained.

No candidate indulging in examination malpractice will secure admission to the University.

Evidence from the exam today does suggest that this could be difficult: we were able to watch a live stream of a candidate’s exam session over video conference app Zoom, which should not have been possible in other proctored exams but was for the NLAT and opens the door wide open to candidates to gain unfair advantages.

Detection of this or other cheating techniques that we had outlined earlier this week could prove to be impossible, , considering the lack of deeply-embedded software in the NLAT and other restrictions.

NLS post-NLAT press release

NLSIU Bangalore National Law Aptitude Test (NLAT)

Comments

Guest 12 Sept 2020, 15:31

+38 -0

I have got a question. When NLSIU is claiming that no cheaters would get admission, are they including their VC? Because that man sure as hell cheated the aspirants out of a cool 40-50 lakhs.

Guest 12 Sept 2020, 15:40

+15 -0

Registrar or VC have evidently not signed the document to stay away from controversy.

hahahhHh 12 Sept 2020, 15:43

+13 -0

What joke. It's from Sarasu's letterhead hahahhahhaa.

Guest 12 Sept 2020, 15:50

+22 -0

Forget Sudhir, where are all the virtue signalling NLSIU alumni who claim to be champions of social justice? I suspect a larger conspiracy for a permanent Claxit. The endgame is to deny INI status to CLAT NLUs and get it exclusively for NLSIU. Why else did Vikramjit Banerjee argue in the Karnataka HC that NLSIU is a special national institution while NALSAR etc are merely like KSLU? Is there a conspiracy to replace NLSIU with KSLU in CLAT?

Guest 12 Sept 2020, 15:54

+12 -0

Request to Kian: Please interview the LSAC people on the point of NLAT being inferior to LSAT because of the absence of the SAB software. This will strengthen the SC case.

Guest 12 Sept 2020, 16:03

+2 -16

Please note that this will not affect NLSIU's perception score in NIRF. That score is based on placements, LLM scholarships, alumni achievements, faculty research, consultancy projects and general impression of NLSIU based on 30 years of excellence. So do not think of how NLSIU can come down in NIRF but rather how other NLUs can also score 100% in perception by repeating those achievements.

Guest 12 Sept 2020, 16:19

+20 -1

1. Of those 30 years, almost 15 were without any competition.
2. I don't care about NIRF ranking. So long as this administration runs the place, I am not advising anyone to go anywhere near it. It is clear that they lack any kind of empathy or sensitivity towards students. That's not a lesson I would like any law student to learn.
3. They can't stay true to their word and they are going to prepare the future generation?
4. True to Sudhir's vision, it is going to become the finishing school for lawyers like Jindal it seems. Let it be. I'd rather root for a law school that's actually committed diversity. That's what Menon wanted too.

Guest 12 Sept 2020, 16:27

+2 -0

Here is another news report

https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/nlsiu-announces-94-attendance-nlat-2020-many-point-out-technical-glitches-132917

Guest 12 Sept 2020, 16:30

+10 -0

BREAKING: A new cheating video uploaded.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncVLX3xaKbM[/youtube]

Guest 12 Sept 2020, 16:37

+9 -0

[img]https://www.legallyindia.com/images/uploads/20200912-223713.jpg[/img]

Guest 12 Sept 2020, 16:41

+7 -0

[img]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EhuMkMPUwAcKAhO.jpg[/img]

[img]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EhuMkMRU0AAn168.jpg[/img]

MAN OF REASON 12 Sept 2020, 16:59

+9 -0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=34&v=ncVLX3xaKbM&feature=emb_logo

VIDEO SHOWING CHEATING IN NLAT 2020

Guest 12 Sept 2020, 17:44

+13 -1

Why does Sudhir and Sarasu, look and sound like the JS combo from MHA and MoHFW, who did PR stunts in the initial weeks of Corona outbreak? And then they simply disappeared when the numbers kept climbing. The MoHFW later got infected.

This press release tells you that AtmaNirbhar Bharat has crossed party lines. Welcome to post-truth NLS. Truth is what Messiah and Mary had a little lamb tells you. And yes we are all black sheep for doubting their Gospels.

Can there be a serious, honest inquiry by EC or directed by the SC into this debacle. Can we stop managerial justice, for once?

Jabra Fan 12 Sept 2020, 18:18

+1 -27

Nope, there won't be any. Those two are going to run the institution whichever way they deem fit. Because they have got the right to do so. What are you trolls gonna do about it? The elephant doesn't stop when the dogs bark at it. Sudhir and Sarasu are going to take this institution to new heights. All of you are just plain jealous that you can't be a part of it. Give CLAT and study at the second grade NLUs run by VCs with Youtube channels. Law School is for your betters. When Sudhir gets tie ups with Oxbridge and the best faculty in the country to teach here, you all are just gonna be turning green and berating the incompetent [...] teaching you all who can't [...].

Guest 12 Sept 2020, 19:10

+3 -1

Why did Messiah come back to India? To serve? Yep he really did that. Or is there another story?

Guest 12 Sept 2020, 21:05

+3 -0

Guys, please also tweet the problems to Sanya Talwar of LiveLaw, as we need to highlight through multiple websites. But do not write to Bar & Bench, as they are underplaying what happened.

https://twitter.com/talwarious

Guest 12 Sept 2020, 21:35

+12 -0

NLSIU likes to refer to other NLUs as mere copies of them. But following NLSIU's new policy of social exclusion, can we refer to NLSIU as a mere copy of Jindal?

Guest 13 Sept 2020, 05:42

+8 -0

Poor man's Jindal?

Guest 13 Sept 2020, 06:26

+4 -0

Do those words even go together? Poor and Jindal I mean. Mind boggling!

RVR 13 Sept 2020, 14:09

+2 -0

WTF?

5,000 candidates for 360 seats (Jindal) versus 28,500 candidates for 120 seats (NLS).

Guest 13 Sept 2020, 18:22

+0 -0

960 actually, that's our batch size for this year for the 5 year and 3 year programme

Guest 12 Sept 2020, 21:43

+4 -8

Someone from NLSIU has written an article defending NLAT and Claxit. He has also said that the best students will still get into NLSIU, so the NIRF perception score will remain intact.

https://lawandotherthings.com/2020/09/nlat-2020-is-it-really-wrong/

Jabra Fan 13 Sept 2020, 05:02

+3 -16

Everything written by this guy is absolutely true. You all think Sudhir hasn't carefully planned everything about the legalities of his actions? If so, sucks to be you when the SC would strike the challenge down, the results of NLAT would be declared, and the students would start classes even when the rest still keep hoping that CLAT would take place on 28th. Even if it does, half the people would get COVID infected, and even the ones selected for second rate NLUs can then learn from their VCs how to make YouTube videos instead of being taught by qualified, top notch faculty at Law School. Keep downvoting all my comments in all these threads, it actually amuses me to know that's the only thing that you all can actually do, while in the real world, Sudhir would be having the last laugh. Because that's the difference between anon useless fellows and a qualified, educated VC. NLS would continue to be the number one law school in the country for the next 50 years.

Kachra fan 13 Sept 2020, 08:03

+3 -0

Guys go through this article in comment 16. Just read this article and realized how some of the(if not most) students and nls alumni are happy with the nlat and care so little about the underprivileged.

This student from nls should be given some credit for supporting nlat openly unlike other students at nls, alumni who must be feeling the same way and caanot express their happiness publically.
Sba released a "we understand" statement on nlat.
SBA should also release another statement saying some of nls students and alumni support nlat

NLU Alum 13 Sept 2020, 08:59

+16 -0

Everything else notwithstanding, I find the hate that FM's YouTube videos get appalling, and it reeks of the same elitism that NLAT stands for. A law teacher's job is not to only publish academic articles in exclusive journals with Oxbridge English and quote philosophers that few know and understand. The 80/120 students at NLS may find the videos beneath them, but there are lakhs of other law students and aspirants every year, not to mention the crores of Indian citizens, who use these accessible and simple videos to augment their understanding of legal issues.

FM is far from the ideal VC, and has more than enough shortcomings from what I know. If you must criticise him, please ask someone who's studied at NALSAR during his regime and you'll get plenty of ammunition to target him. But I for one would love to learn under a teacher who is trying to make the law itself more accessible to people beyond the elite NLU crowd, and those who seek to emulate him must be lauded and not sneered at.

Guest 13 Sept 2020, 09:09

+4 -6

Posting YouTube videos do not a scholar make.

Guest 13 Sept 2020, 09:12

+6 -1

Ask Faizan whether he would give a job to a teacher who has 10 articles in international journals, over another who has 100 YouTube videos explaining legal concepts. You'd get your answer. If you play the game, you obey the rules or change those. Can't keep using one set of rules for yourself and another for others. The NALSAR student example that you gave would be handy for criticising Faizan the admin. The lack of actual credible publications would be handy for doing so to Faizan the scholar.

Guest11 13 Sept 2020, 09:38

+4 -0

I agree that fm should be given credit for his Youtube videos. Though i have watched 2/3 of those but they were good enough. His channel name is legal awareness series, i think his videos at least do justice to channel name for creating awareness and providing basic info which allot people may find informative and useful.

Jabar Fan 13 Sept 2020, 09:06

Troll

+5 -12

Almost all NLS students and alumni do so. Rightly too. The few masquerading here as alum and venting against the exam aren't really alum. We stand with Sudhir and we don't care what the other NLUs think about our actions. Why should we? We don't depend on them and there's a lot of intelligible differentia between Law School and any run of the mill NLU.

AnxiousLittleHands 13 Sept 2020, 05:28

+2 -2

It would indeed be surprising if a bye-law of a Society could limit the powers of the EC of a University set up under its own Statute. And that too in an emergent matter ! Or, unbeknownst to us, was the NLSIU Act amended to give such overarching powers to this Society ? Before signing up for the Society, did anyone even think for a moment that some of the administrative and academic powers granted exclusively to the statutory bodies of NLS would eventually be claimed by this Society ? Or was it always clear that no such powers would be ceded to such a Society ? Please note that the EC of NLS is a creature of statute whereas the CLAT Consortium is merely a private Society.

Guest 13 Sept 2020, 06:16

+4 -0

Even public bodies would have to abide by the clauses of the contract that they enter into with private bodies. NLSIU did sign the CLAT MoU for this year voluntarily.

Pi 13 Sept 2020, 06:49

+3 -0

Frustration of contract?

Guest 13 Sept 2020, 07:17

+4 -0

Would need to show dissent in the meetings that led to cancellation of earlier dates. From what I gather, there is no mention of such in the minutes, although Sudhir is now claiming that he had never agreed to the postponement.

Beta 13 Sept 2020, 13:35

+1 -1

Son, be careful. There are video recording of meetings. Now go back to daddy.

Sent from my iPhone 13 Sept 2020, 07:03

+1 -5

Venkata Rao

You had signed the bye-laws of the consortium without taking approval of NLSIU's Academic Council. Will you explain here or in the Supreme Court of India?

Guest 13 Sept 2020, 07:16

+6 -1

The MoU has to be signed anew every year. If RVR accepted the terms, then so did Sudhir.

Guest 13 Sept 2020, 09:16

+8 -0

The change in the NLSIU letterhead ("sponsored by BCI") is very significant. It is on this basis that Sudhir and alumni are lobbying for National Importance status. Backchannel discussions have already taken place with Amit Khare (Secretary for Higher Education) and Neeta Prasad (Joint Secretary in charge of Institutions of National Importance). They are said to be open to the idea and will bring it before the HRD Minister. The final call lies with the HRD Minister.

Jabra Fan 13 Sept 2020, 11:33

+3 -10

Who would also say yes because Law School actually deserves it unlike other NLUs, and our alumni actually do something for their alma instead of merely posting anon comments on LI and they would make this happen.

Lol 13 Sept 2020, 14:54

+8 -2

Maybe your students should also do some things, like winning moots, publishing papers, or getting jobs. NUJS has far outstripped them in average Big 6 jobs per batch size. NLS has only "probably" won Stetson in the past 5 years, which even GNLU has. NLS had no vac schemes for the graduating batch (2020), while nalsar had 8 vac schemes for that one batch. Nalsar has also won jessup national rounds twice in the past two years, was NLS just letting them have a false sense of security before they unleashed their full potential (read: amazingly huge egos)?

NLS is no longer any different from the other top 6 NLUs. The only people who feel so are the NLS alumni who graduated when there was no competition and want to keep up their sense of self-worth because they know they wouldn't have made it to any of the NLUs now.

Jabra Fan 13 Sept 2020, 15:51

+1 -4

Day Zero jobs are things second stringers like you bother about. Top 15 rankers of Law School don't even sit for Day Zero. As for vac schemes, why don't you list out total number of vac schemes Law School alum have had in the past 5 years and compare it with any other NLU? From UPSC highest rank among NLUs to actually having a High Court judge as alum, from having started the most talked about NGO in law school circuit, to actually having alum filling and winning landmark cases, you two bit wannabes don't come anywhere near Law School. So tuck your tail behind your legs and slink back home before comparing achievements.

Lol 13 Sept 2020, 22:11

+4 -0

Hey Jabra Fan, learn to read (how did you even get into nls in the first place). Did I mention day zero? No, I meant including ppos. And why don't you tell me vac schemes in the past 5 years? Nalsar has had at least 16, how many has NLS? Nalsar's legal aid clinic has won community engagement awards, but sadly, NLS' hasn't (apt, considering the entire institution doesn't seem like it cares about the less fortunate). Again, everything you're listing out is stuff your alumni have done long before they had competition. What are the students doing currently, except losing to other nlus in every competition?

Dear Aggs, Stetson was the only thing an NLS student could come up with when asked what good moots NLS has won recently (comments sections of LI, a few posts ago). Care to back up with scorn with facts? Did you win Vis recently? oh nope, that was NUJS. Did you win Jessup recently? Nope. You couldn't even get to the finals in the national rounds, forget embarrassing yourselves internationally. Did you win ICC or get to the finals in the international rounds? Nope, that was NLUD in 2018. So, what exactly has NLS done?

Same goes for Guest. Funny how everyone seems to be offended yet no one provides any actual evidence.

Aggs 13 Sept 2020, 16:09

+0 -2

Probably only won Stetson in the last 5 years? Lol. At least try getting the facts right while ranting to push your agenda.

Guest 13 Sept 2020, 17:41

+0 -3

@ 19.1.1: If you believe that there is no difference between NLSIU and NALSAR/NUJS, then you are a fake news propagandist. The placements/scholarships/alumni achievements of NLSIU are unsurpassed, even if I look only from 2010 onwards.

Iwantthepotyouresmokin 13 Sept 2020, 22:49

+9 -0

Lol bro, if you think there's a difference, you're the "fake news propagandist". I have NLS interns all the time, and I honestly prefer even Jindal students because they at least try to shake off the reputation they have. All these NLS kids do is state they're from nls and hope their rep distracts us from their sub-par work

Guest 14 Sept 2020, 06:41

+8 -0

One of the NLSIU journals had requested a contribution from me last year. They also offered to provide research assistance. The RA assigned did not have the slightest idea about the topic, did not bother to turn up for meetings and con-calls scheduled, then sent a mail stating that if I only wrote to him about what I was looking for, he'd have it for me in a jiffy. 7 days later, I was provided with 6 articles on the topic that I could have got myself within half an hour or less by searching standard databases. I was quite disappointed with the experience. It is quite possible that the anecdotal evidence is not reflective of Law School student quality in general, but it is the attitude that seems to be quite common nonetheless. I never had this kind of experience while working with student-run journals like NUJS Law Review, or journals from NLUD, NLUJ etc.

Yep 14 Sept 2020, 08:01

+3 -1

More common than one would hope, at least. We've stopped giving as many slots to NLS students as we used to maybe 5-6 years ago. Some students are genuinely interested in the law and put in effort. But sadly, a majority of them just intern for the CV value and don't care about the work once they get selected. I have not seen such a trend with any other law schools so far.

Guest 13 Sept 2020, 14:16

+2 -0

Sudhir was planning Claxit much before Covid. There is no looking back. NLAT is here to stay.

Guest 13 Sept 2020, 17:42

+0 -0

Agree. Sudhir may agree to "return" to CLAT next year to mollify an irate SC should the re-test on Sep 14 fail to soothe frayed nerves. But NLAT will make a quick return.

Guest 13 Sept 2020, 17:33

+3 -0

NLS has announced a re-test on Sep 14 at 12.30pm. Those who opt-in will have their previous score erased. Interestingly, many who did not even seek technical help got the re-test message.

Messiah doing everything to soften the blow in SC. He is God, what harm can mortals, even Iron Men, do to Messiah.

#TeflonMessiah

Guest 13 Sept 2020, 17:39

+1 -0

https://www.barandbench.com/news/breaking-nlsiu-to-hold-nlat-re-test-tomorrow-at-1230

Guest 13 Sept 2020, 17:47

+2 -0

NLAT tomorrow.

Guest 13 Sept 2020, 17:53

+4 -0

NLSIU alum and former NALSAR prof Prashant Reddy is still aggressively defending Sudhir and NLAT. His latest tweet:

[quote]To hold physical examinations in the middle of a pandemic is to discriminate against those students who are more suspectible to COVID risks - ten times worse than the tech exclusions of NLAT but you won't hear any of the NLAT bashers talking about "exclusion" in the CLAT context!
[/quote]

https://twitter.com/Preddy85

Guest 14 Sept 2020, 05:11

+6 -2

It is easy to downplay 'tech exclusions' as this guy has been doing while tweeting 24/7 from a smartphone. Had Shamnad been alive, he would have given this guy a piece of his mind.

Guest 13 Sept 2020, 17:58

+5 -0

NUJS has done an expose on NLAT.

https://nujswritersblock.wordpress.com/2020/09/13/nlat-nothing-like-a-test/

Guest 13 Sept 2020, 18:03

+6 -0

Sharing some inside news. I met with a senior NLSIU alum (a family friend) who is close to Sudhir. He said that Sudhir is "going to dig his heels in" and keep defending NLAT. Also, he said that Sudhir wants a permanent Claxit with a greater focus on English comprehension.

Jabba 13 Sept 2020, 19:14

+1 -0

Comment no. 8 is the real shiz lol

John Doe 13 Sept 2020, 19:37

+8 -1

This is not something that people here might want to read, but here is something that I understand:
- NLS only needs to look at the top 120-200 test scores, carefully go through their tests and determine whether cheating occurred ot not. As the instructions are clear, it should be easy to get rid of cheaters based on inbuilt coding and registered audio-video.
- this is essence tells me something. It tells me that it would be slightly easy for NLS to discover the accounts which engaged in cheating via zoom, or software codes or some other means.

In essence, NLS should in all probability be able to determine the best of the test takers. Cheating is not the best argument to invalidate the exam. I suppose the best argument for that should be on accessibility of the exam, going back on its promise

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