BENGALURU: The covid-19 pandemic has caused "unforseen difficulties and delays in the conduct of CLAT 2020", owing to which the top law institute in the country, National Law School of India University (NLSIU) has decided to conduct its own entrance examinations this year.
The entrance will be conducted for 120 seats for its B.A., LL.B and LL.M programmes and the last date to apply is September 10.
This year's entrance examination decision also differs from its usual procedure wherein aspirants had to sit for a common all India examination Common Law Admission Test (CLAT).
All applications must be submitted online at https://admissions.nls.ac.in/ to fill out the NLAT UG 2020 entrance examination.
We are fully committed to ensuring that no student is denied the opportunity to study at NLSIU. Hence, NLSIU is compelled by the current circumstances to conduct a separate admissions process for the B.A., LL.B and LL.M programmes for the Academic Year 2020-21, the admissions notice by the institute read.
This is owing to the academic structure -- trimester system -- that the institute is working with, which puts it to a particular disadvantage if CLAT is postponed, the institute even runs the risk of having a 'zero year' (no admissions) if the process is not completed by September.
In a Trimester, every academic year is made up of three terms of 90 days. Each term must accommodate 60 hours of classroom instruction in each course.
In addition to that, it must adequately provide for examination and evaluation processes.
Further, the academic structure offers the 3rd, 4th and 5th year of the B.A., LL.B programme as well as the LL.M programme as an integrated course and requires a common academic calendar, as per the institute.
Meanwhile, the Executive Committee of the Consortium of National Law Universities, on August 28, announced that CLAT will be postponed from September 7 to September 28.