RTI applicant decries 2013 CLAT’s record-burning by 30 November

An NLU Delhi student has objected to the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) committee’s recent notice stating that all records of the CLAT 2013 will be destroyed by 30 November 2013.

A 17 October notification on the CLAT’s website stated:

“As resolved in the concluding meeting of the CLAT-2013 Core Committee held on 17th September 2013, all documents pertaining to CLAT-2013 will be destroyed/ disposed off [sic] six months after the date of publication of CLAT-2013 result. In other words, the organizing university for CLAT 2013 (i.e. HNLU, Raipur) will not be able to share any information pertaining to CLAT-2013 after 30th November 2013.”

Lakshya Gupta, a second-year NLU Delhi student said: “I haven’t seen any public authority issue such a notice. They should give at least six months’ notice [before destroying all records], and not just decide today that six months after the exam the records will be destroyed. That just gives you one month to get the information you want. This is really short notice, it is really unfair.”

Gupta had filed a right to information (RTI) request dated 7 October, and a first appeal dated 20 November on his RTI, requesting for question papers and answer keys for CLAT 2008 – 2013 and for information on the regional and other demographic of CLAT applicants in those years.

He told Legally India that “an exam which is an entrance exam in law should be of equal opportunity for all applicants”. He said that he filed the RTI to use the information to assess whether the type of questions that make up the CLAT favour any class of applicants more.

There has been no response on his RTI or on the first appeal yet. Both were filed to CLAT 2013 convenor HNLU Raipur.

HNLU’s vice chancellor Prof Sukh Pal Singh told Legally India that the law school has answered all RTI requests it had received for CLAT 2013, and that any RTI for information on the previous editions of CLAT should be addressed to the previous years’ convenors.

“There is no motivation behind [destroying CLAT documents]. It is a practice which was also followed last year. We cannot keep all the records forever,” added Singh.

CLAT has been through several bumps around its implementation each year, with errors in question papers, university allotment lists, and quota-based rankings. CLAT 2014 is scheduled for May and will be convened by GNLU Gandhinagar.

Common Law Admission Test (CLAT)HNLU Raipur Right to Information (RTI)

Comments

request 27 Nov 2013, 16:19

+3 -1

Kian it is high time you do a comprehensive story comparing the faculty and infrastructure in different NLUs. This will really benefit CLAT aspirants. I think you are doing a disservice by not publishing such a story because thousands of impressionable minds are being misguided by paid magazine rankings.

Legal Poet 27 Nov 2013, 20:15

+4 -1

WTH is this.

Someone tell them that they can digitize the records and store it forever.

This is so stupid that you feel like giving up hope on any sort of argumentation.

PARAS NATH SINGH 30 Nov 2013, 06:58

+1 -1

Well, Public Authority has a right to frame their own rules and regulation regarding wedding out of their records. If you have filed an RTI application seeking your answer scripts but they did not respond to your RTI. You should file complaint/appeal under section 18 and 19(3) of the RTI Act, 2005 against the Public Authority. During the pendency of your appeal or complaint, they cannot weed out the records even after the six months.

Advocate 5 Dec 2013, 06:33

+1 -0

What if someone wants to bring an action in relation to CLAT 2 years after the exam? Why should any authority be allowed to destroy records before exhaustion of limitation period, plus 2 years (as delays may be condoned by a court).

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