The Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs) has informed the Delhi High Court that it is not possible to conduct the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2024 in Hindi and other regional languages. The Consortium stated that the syllabus as well as the test pattern for the exam scheduled to be conducted in December 2023 has already been announced and students are preparing accordingly.
“On the administrative side of the consortium, preparatory work of setting the paper/key, requisite contract of software technical support (OM) etc. began in the month of February 2023 itself and are now in advanced stage of completion. Hence, the option for other scheduled options of language is a near impossibility for the 21 CLAT to be held in December 2023.” the affidavit filed by the Consortium reads.
National Law Universities argued that the CLAT examination should not be compared with other qualifying and entrance examinations like UPSC, IIT-JEE, and NEET. NLU said that the above-mentioned examinations are conducted on a much larger scale compared to CLAT. Even after that, these examinations are not held in all the regional languages enumerated in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
A law student, Sudhanshu Pathak had earlier filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) demanding that CLAT 2024 should be held in Hindi and other regional languages. After the PIL was filed NLU formed a committee with the aim to examine the prospect of holding a CLAT examination in Indian vernacular languages. The committee held its first meeting on June 25 and now the second meeting is scheduled to be conducted in July second week.
The committee argued that English is the medium of instruction in the NLUs and that the Bar Council of India (BCI) Rules of Legal Education, 2008 make it mandatory that English should be the medium of instruction in both five-year and three-year law courses.
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