Delhi HC Seeks Centre, NLU Consortium Stand On Plea For Taking CLAT 2020 From Home

The single-Judge bench of Justice Jayant Nath has asked the Centre and the Consortium of National Law Universities (NLU) to file their replies in the matter by August 10, 2020.

The plea has been filed by law student V. Govinda Ramanan, raising the sheer contradiction between the advisory issued by the Government of India to maintain social distancing, and the CLAT-2020 Notification which mandates students to gather at examination centers. As such it is contended that the notification is illegal/ erroneous and is also violative of the Right to life, enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution.

He therefore seeks a direction upon the NLU Consortium for conducting a completely "home-based online examination," as has been done by other similar institutes, in view of the present COVID crisis.

The Court has asked the Central Government to inform whether it would be permissible to hold such an exam at physical centers, in view of the prevailing pandemic.

CLAT 2020 is scheduled to be held on August 22, 2020, through a "computer-based, online, centre-based" test. The decision to this effect was taken by the Executive Committee of the Consortium after reviewing the impact of the lockdowns and other restrictions arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The counsel appearing for the Consortium initially submitted that the plea is not maintainable in Delhi as the Consortium is based in Bengaluru. He also said that it was decided not to hold CLAT at home as it would lead to rampant cheating.

A similar justification was given by the Consortium earlier, while announcing the examination date. The notification intimating the examination date stated,

"An off-line test, as initially contemplated, would require large scale movement of students to limited centres, and significant logistics in the handling of question papers and answer scripts, which is not possible during the prevalent pandemic conditions. Further, an on-line test at home with technological measures cannot ensure transparency, fairness and integrity of a high stakes examination process or maintain equitable access to necessary facilities. Hence, the EC concluded that an on-line test at a large number of centres compliant with physical distancing and public health safety prescriptions is in the best interests of the health and safety of candidates and test administrators."

The matter is now listed for hearing on August 10, 2020.

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