A sudden, solo decision taken by the National Law School of India University in Bengaluru (NLSIU) to turn its back on the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) and devise its own exclusive, “elitist” online admission process amid the pandemic has left thousands of aspirants in a tizzy.
This is what a petition filed by none other than NLSIU former Vice Chancellor R. Venkat Rao told the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Dr. Rao, flanked by a parent, Rajesh Kumar Agarwalla, said the conduct of the NLSIU and its Vice Chancellor, Sudhir Krishnaswamy, threatened to permanently alter the public perception of the premier institute from an “island of excellence” to one of exclusion.
The new exam called the ‘National Law Admission Test Under Graduate 2020’ or NLAT-UG 2020, was devised by the NLSIU “unilaterally and in obscene haste” to avoid a ‘zero year’.
A notification issued last week fixed the NLAT for September 12. The exam will be conducted online using “artificial intelligence and human proctoring”.
Multiple postponements of CLAT
The NLSIU decision was prompted by the multiple postponements of the CLAT due to the health crisis. The CLAT is tentatively scheduled for September 28. But the NLSIU has declared that it will not accept the CLAT scores for the academic year 2020-21.
The petition urged the court to quash both the conduct of the NLAT and its technical requirements as discriminatory practices in violation of the fundamental rights of students.
Dr. Rao, represented by advocates Vipin Nair and Sughosh Subramyam, said the technical equipment required to access the NLAT were heavily loaded against underprivileged aspirants. For one, students should have “at least one Mbps bandwidth”.
The petition said the move by the NLSIU was intended to “create an elitist institution which caters to those whose are able to afford to take the test... It ignores the aspirations of the poor, marginalised and less privileged candidates”.
‘Students in fear’
Dr. Rao said the lack of preparation time and the drastic change in the admission process had also left students in a “state of fear and confusion”.
“The unilateral decision taken without application of mind completely prejudices the students at the final hour and has put their career at jeopardy for purely whimsical reasons”, the petition said.
Besides putting children to “extreme pressure and mental stress”, Dr. Rao said, the NLSIU’s call to unilaterally notify and conduct the NLAT had jeopardised the position of the institution within the consortium of 22 national law universities for which the CLAT was the uniform mode of admission.
The NLSIU was set up in 1986 to attain the highest standards of legal education. It was also the only institute sponsored by the Bar Council of India, the petition pointed out.
