Supreme Court to Address Petition on Monday Regarding 'Procedural Irregularities' in CLAT 2025
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New Delhi, Dec 8 (NationPress) The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a petition contesting the 'procedural irregularities' and 'unequal treatment of candidates' that occurred during the execution of the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2025, which serves as the entrance examination for the 5-year integrated LL.B. and LL.M. programs at National Law Universities (NLUs).
According to the causelist made available on the apex court's website, a bench comprising CJI Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar will take up the case for hearing on December 9.
The petition asserts that sealed envelopes were distributed to candidates at 1:50 p.m. at one examination center, while another center provided such envelopes only after 2 p.m.
'Since any candidate would require a few minutes to enter his/her Admit Card Number and Question Booklet Number, along with filling in the corresponding circles, it is clear that candidates were not treated equally across all centers due to procedural lapses in adhering to invigilator instructions', the petition states.
Moreover, the petition highlights a breach of the right to education as protected under Article 21A and the right to equality as enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution of India, citing the release of an incorrect provisional answer key. It points out that the issuance of an erroneous provisional answer key for nearly 12 questions reflects a careless attitude in the administration of the examination by the Consortium of NLUs.
Additionally, it indicates that the petitioners' right to education was compromised due to the exorbitant fees levied for the examination and the objection process. It criticizes the arbitrary and minimal timeframe allowed for challenging the final answer key prior to the publication of the CLAT 2025 results and the registration for admission counseling. The petition emphasizes that even after collecting a hefty fee of Rs 4,000 for the examination, the Consortium only accepted objections upon the payment of Rs 1,000 per objection.
'There is no justification for imposing such an exorbitant fee for objections filed by candidates due to errors made by the consortium in releasing the wrong provisional answer key', the petition argues. It further claims that the right to equality under Article 14 of the Constitution was infringed upon due to the lack of compliance by invigilators in following the Test Day Instructions provided to candidates.
