Supreme Court: The bench of Ashok Bhushan, R. Subhash Reddy and MR Shah, JJ has refused to stay the conduct of NLAT by NLSIU Bengaluru which is scheduled to be held today but has directed that “neither the result shall be declared nor any admission be made consequent thereto.”
The conduct of NLAT for admission to the Five-Years Integrated B.A., LL.B (Hons.) Programme, 2020-21 has been challenged on the ground that Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) has already been notified and has been postponed to 28th September, 2020. Senior Advocate Nidhesh Gupta, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that since NLSIU is also part of it, no separate admission test by National Law School of India University, Bengaluru could have been held which has been notified to be held.
Senior Advocate Arvind P. Datar, appearing on behalf of NLSIU submitted that examination is scheduled for 12.09.2020 and all preparations have been made for conducting the admission test.
Looking to the importance of the issues raised in this petition, the Court permitted the respondents to file their reply to the writ petition. Listing the matter for further hearing on 16.09.2020, the Court directed.
“examination for admission in pursuance of Notification dated 04.09.2020 may take place but neither the result shall be declared nor any admission be made consequent thereto. We make it clear that conducting of examination shall be subject to the outcome of the writ petition.”
In the notification dated 04.09.2020, NLSIU had stated that the decision was taken due to the unforeseen difficulties and delays in the conduct of CLAT 2020. As NLSIU follows a trimester system it was uniquely disadvantaged as every academic year is made up of three terms of 90 days duration. Moreover, each term must accommodate 60 hours of classroom instruction in each course and adequately provide for examination and evaluation processes. If it were unable to complete admissions by the end of September 2020 it would inevitably result in a ‘Zero Year’ with no admission. Read more
[Rakesh Kumar Agarwalla v. National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, 2020 SCC OnLine SC 734, order dated 11.09.2020]
