NEW DELHI: Former Vice-Chancellor of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru has approached the Supreme Court along with a parent, challenging NLSIU’s move to conduct a separate law entrance exam this year, in the wake of the delayed conduct of Common Law Admission Test (CLAT).
The petition filed by ex-vice chancellor, Prof Dr R Venkata Rao, claiming that the decision of the present Vice-Chancellor to conduct a separate test, would convert NLSIU from being ‘an island of excellence’ to ‘an island of exclusion and stated that,
“The Present NLSIU Vice-Chancellor did not have requisite consent from the academic council for conducting a separate examination.” Terming the reasons for conducting a separate test as baseless, the petition stated, “The technical requirement of having a laptop and 1 Mbps of internet speed for taking home proctored examination, is onerous, arbitrary, discriminatory and illegal.”
Following the postponement of CLAT to September 28 after an August 28 meeting of the NLU Consortium, the NLSIU issued its September 3 notification to hold its own entrance exam i.e. the NLAT unilaterally and with obscene haste.
Online applications for the NLAT have to be made by September 10, whereas the process only started on September 3.
This means that a mere window of seven days was given within which applications are to be made for the September 12 NLAT.