CLATastrophe

CLAT aspirants faced many hurdles this year - delayed start, computers not switching on, loss of time and more.

June 02, 2018 03:54 pm | Updated 03:54 pm IST

Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) is believed to be “the exam” for many students who want to build a career in law. They prepare for years before appearing for this exam. However, due to no fault of theirs, thousands of students who appeared for CLAT this year faced hurdles due to technical errors.

This year, like last year, various centres conducting CLAT exam faced technical snags. This resulted in huge delays and other issues. Kanika Sharma from Delhi, who appeared for CLAT for LLM, said, “The computers hanged and there were other technical problems, making us lose as many as 30 minutes. The exam conducted by Kochi was a complete disaster.”

Enquiry

“I have gone through all the credible technical glitches officially registered in the conduction of CLAT 2018, and while most of the complaints seem genuine and unfortunate, a thorough enquiry must be conducted so as to examine the genesis of these issues and weed out the fundamental impediments to smooth conduct of an entrance test of this scale,” said Priyan Garg, Advocate, Karanjawala & Co.

Previous CLAT-takers say that this is not the first mess-up. “Bad weather is merely an excuse by an authority because every year, the same story of recklessness is repeated by CLAT. It has been happening for the last two years. CLAT is being dragged to court because of technical glitches and poor attitude towards students’ grievances,” said Harshit Pareek, a first-year student from Himachal Pradesh National Law University (HPNLU), Shimla.

After many protests, many students wonder they would get a shot at re-examination. “It would have been better to re-conduct the exam. Otherwise, everyone will have grievances about how someone else got extra time or had seen the questions before but still got extra time.

Nodal agency

A fresh test will ensure no such grievances arise and will give a fair chance to everyone again,” said Siddhi Gupta, a second-year B.A. LL. B (Hons.) student at National Law School of India University, Bengaluru.

The Supreme Court suggested formation of a nodal gency in order to address and examine the complaints of candidates.

While a solid solution is awaited, students share their views if India is ready for computer-based examinations, or whether the ‘pen-and-paper’ mode of examinations should be continued.

Siddhi Gupta, II, B.A. LL. B (Hons.), National Law School of India University, Bengaluru:

Mine was the first batch to attempt an online CLAT exam. Although it took time to switch to that format from the usual, I preferred it as it is easier to keep track of time, and one can mark a question in different ways — answered and don’t need to review, answered but want to review, and so on. There is no fear of damage to the OMR sheets and takes much less time in checking.

Harshit Pareek, Ist year, Himachal Pradesh National Law University (HPNLU), Shimla:

I would prefer online exams if conducted properly as it saves a lot of time, reduces error while answering questions as the font size of OMR sheet is small. It helps focus on only one question at a time which is visible on the screen. We also get real-time updates about how many questions we have attended, and how much time is left.

Kanika Aggarwal, BA. LLB, GGSIPU:

It is pretty good. The new system has flexibility but its defects lead to its failure. So, I would prefer the less faulty pen-and-paper exam.

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