The Consortium of National Law Universities has recently informed the Delhi High Court, in response to a Public Interest Litigation seeking direction on the Consortium to conduct CLAT (UG)- 2024 (Common Law Admission Test) scheduled in December 2023 not only in English language but in all other regional languages given in the Eight schedule of the Constitution of India, that at present the Consortium has decided against conducting CLAT 2024 in multiple languages due to the challenges and complexities they have identified.

The Affidavit filed by the Consortium reads "At present as per the consensus amongst the various internal stakeholder bodies consulted by the Consortium which are constituted by the Vice Chancellors of the Member NLUs, eminent academics from other legal institutions, and retired judges (including the Chairperson of the BCI’s Legal Education Committee) — is that it is not feasible to offer CLAT 2024, which is scheduled to be held on 03.12.2023, in multiple languages due to the various substantive and procedural difficulties identified during the course of their deliberations."

The Delhi High Court, on May 19, 2023, had asked the Consortium to clarify their stand and had 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.

On July 7, 2023, the Consortium had informed the High Court, that an Advisory Board has been constituted to, inter alia, discuss the issue of conducting CLAT in the scheduled language option and advise the Governing Body and Executive Committee of the colleges who participate in the CLAT examination.

In the latest response filed by the Secretary-Treasurer of the CLAT Consortium, it has been submitted that an appropriate policy decision will be taken to govern the CLAT 'in future' and prays that it be permitted to address the issue in a planned, phased manner, so as to avoid compromising integrity and confidentiality of the examination.

"The primary concern of all decision-making bodies within the Respondent No. 1 is to ensure that the examination is conducted with the utmost academic integrity and to maintain academic standards while considering whether parity across different languages may be maintained in the CLAT examination", reads the affidavit.

It also further submitted that the final decision with regard to the issue (as to languages in which the CLAT examination can be offered in coming years) will have to be taken by the Executive Committee and the General Body of CLAT Consortium, based on the inputs of both the Advisory Board and also the expert Sub-Committee of Vice- Chancellors which has been specifically constituted by the Executive Committee on this particular issue.

On the contrary, the Bar Council of India had supported the PIL. In the affidavit filed through the Joint Secretary of the Bar Council of India, it had been stated that "The Bar Council of India supports the issue raised by Petitioner for conducting the CLAT examination in languages other than English as the same will give opportunities to more citizens of the country to appear in the exam and pursue law as a career." The BCI had also highlighted that the All India Bar Examination conducted by the Bar Council of India on February 5, 2023, was declared to be conducted in 23 languages.

While challenging the same, the CLAT Consortium informed the Delhi High Court, in the present affidavit, that the submission by the Bar Council of India (BCI) of offering All India Bar Examination XVII in 23 languages, was factually incorrect. Consortium stated that upon making enquiries, it was learnt that the said examination was offered in only 11 languages last year.

It was also highlighted by the Consortium that there are fundamental differences between the AIBE and CLAT examinations with respect to their testing patterns, which are wholly distinct from each other. It was submitted that AIBE is focused on testing memory and general knowledge and is therefore capable of easily being translated into multiple languages, without the need for paying any particular reference to ensure testing parity and uniformity of complexity of the question paper across various translated options while the pattern of the CLAT paper presents much more complex issues in translation, as it is focussed on comprehension and critical reasoning.

"If simple translations were to be done hurriedly without ensuring parity of difficulty in the various language options, it would open the floodgates for candidate grievances. Introduction of an altogether new format for testing is also not feasible at this stage, as this will seriously prejudice all candidates who have already commenced their preparation for the entrance examination for 2024. The balance of convenience is in favour of causing no changes in the current testing pattern for the present", reads the affidavit.

Also, it has been submitted that CLAT Consortium simply does not have the capacity and wherewithal currently to immediately implement any additional language options, without compromising the quality and integrity of the competitive examination.

Similar to the stand taken by the BCI, the Central Ministry of Education has also informed the High Court that it has no objection if the entrance examination for CLAT-2024 (UG) is conducted in English and other regional languages. In the PIL filed by Sudhanshu Pathak, through the Advocates Akash Vajpai and Sakshi Raghav, it has been submitted that the present CLAT (UG) demands a high degree of proficiency in English rendering a disadvantage to students from non-English medium backgrounds.

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.

On Friday, the Delhi High Court sought the stand of the National Testing Agency (NTA). The Bench headed by Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma asked NTA, which conducts competitive examinations like NEET and JEE, to file a response stating if questions asked in CLAT can be translated into other languages.

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

CLATNLUBar Council of IndiaDelhi High Court

Ramey Krishan Rana