The Delhi High Court on Friday asked the Consortium of National Law Universities to clarify their stand and directed them to file a reply within 4 weeks in a Public Interest Litigation seeking the conduct of the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) (UG)- 2024 exam in all regional languages given in the eighth schedule of the Constitution of India.

The Division Bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad directed that as the CLAT 2024 is scheduled for December 2023, timely action is required in the petition or else it will become infructuous. The Court adjourned the matter to July 7, 2023.

The Chief Justice led Bench remarked that if the NEET and JEE exams are conducted in multiple languages, the Court sees no problem as to why the CLAT exam cannot be conducted in the regional languages along with English. Agreeing with the view of the Petitioner and the High Court, the Bar Council of India supported the stand and stated that even the All India Bar Examination organized by them is conducted in multiple languages.

The Consortium of National Law Universities apprised the Delhi High Court that a decision is soon expected. "There is a committee which has been specifically constituted and is looking after the conduct of CLAT whose meeting is scheduled for May 20, 2023." submitted the Consortium. They added that in the Committee compromising of 3 members, there has been an addition of 2 more members and the matter is pending consideration before them and that they will reach a conclusion shortly.

Considering this, the Delhi High Court gave four weeks of time to the Consortium to file their reply. The Petitioner was represented by Senior Advocate Jayant Mehta and Advocate Akash Vajpai.

The High Court had issued notice in this matter on March 15, 2023. In this PIL filed by Sudhanshu Pathak through Advocate Sakshi Raghav under Article 226 of the Constitution, it was submitted that the present CLAT (UG) demands a high degree of proficiency in English rendering a disadvantage to students from non-English medium backgrounds.

The Petitioner has sought direction on the Respondent No. 1- Consortium of National Law Universities to conduct "CLAT (UG)- 2024 (Common Law Admission Test), scheduled, to be held in December 2023 not only in English language but in all other regional languages given in the Eight schedule of the Constitution of India".

It is submitted in the petition that as per a 2013-14 year survey, 96.77% of the surveyed students came from English medium backgrounds which indicates that proficiency in the English language continues to be a major factor for gaining admission to a top NLU in the country and that CLAT (UG) discriminates against and fails to provide a level playing field to the students belonging to educational backgrounds rooted in regional languages.

The Petitioner highlights the fact that the New Education Policy, 2020 and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 require the mother tongue to be the medium of instruction in schools and higher education institutions and that it is unfortunate that English as an only medium of CLAT-(UG) is depriving a huge portion of the students of opting for the law (5 years LLB) as a course of study, who have studied in their regional or native languages.

"Aspirants belonging to English-medium schools have an advantage over their peers belonging to schools operating in Hindi or other vernacular languages" reads the petition. It further adds that Now, CLAT-2024 is scheduled to take place in December 2023 and Respondent No. 1 has enough time to bring necessary changes in the system and make it language neutral.

Cause Title: Sudhanshu Pathak v. Consortium of National Law Universities & Ors [W.P.(C) 3132/2023]

Chief Justice Satish Chandra SharmaJustice Subramonium PrasadCLATNLUBar Council of India

Ramey Krishan Rana