SC reserves for Sept 21 order on plea against NLSIU Bengaluru holding separate entrance exam

The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its judgement for September 21 on a petition challenging the decision of Bengaluru's National Law School of India University (NLSIU) to conduct separate entrance exam for this year.

The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its judgement for September 21 on a petition challenging the decision of Bengaluru's National Law School of India University (NLSIU) to conduct separate entrance exam for this year. A bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan, said it will deliver the judgement on Monday after concluding the hearing in the case today.

Earlier, the apex court had allowed NLSIU Bengaluru to hold the sperate entrance exam for admissions this academic year on September 12 but had made it clear that results will not be declared and no admission will be done without its approval. This year, NLSIU Bangalore had decided to hold an Online National Law Aptitude Test (NLAT) on September 12 for admission in place of the Common Law Admission Test, 2020 (CLAT), which is scheduled to be conducted on September 28.

The bench was hearing a plea filed by former Vice-Chancellor of the NLSIU, Professor Dr R Venkata Rao and an aggrieved parent of a CLAT 2020 aspirant challenging the sudden withdrawal of NLSIU Bangalore from CLAT 2020 and holding a separate test. The plea said such "unilateral decision" of NLSIU to hold a separate examination has thrown the aspirants of CLAT 2020 into a frenzy and is a serious violation of their fundamental rights. It challenged NLSIU's notice dated September 3 for admission to the five-year BA LLB program for the academic session 2020-21.

During the hearing, senior advocate Arvind Datar appearing for NLSIU said that it's only this one year that NLSIU is holding this sperate exam and next year it will go back to CLAT. He justified the conduct of holding a sperate exam and questioned the maintainability of the plea before the Supreme Court. Senior advocate Nidhesh Gupta, appearing for the petitioners, said the decision of NLSIU to have a separate entrance is violative of the by-laws. The examination standard is to be decided by the academic council and the executive council cannot repeal or amend, he added.

Gupta, while taking the bench through the Memorandum of Association of Consortium of National Law Universities which mandates a Common Law Entrance for The National Law Universities (NLUs), said "Any NLU formally admitted is required to organise the Common Admission Test for all courses for NLU's across the country." "If you don't want to be a part of the Consortium, you can leave. But as long as one is a part of it, they must adhere to the bylaws. In view of the pandemic, CLAT had to postponed like other exams which had been postponed," Gupta argued. (ANI)

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