NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday directed the Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs) to submit its response within two weeks regarding several petitions challenging the results of the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2025. The case, concerning admissions to NLUs across the country, has heightened anxiety among students.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela emphasised the urgency of the matter. “We understand that students are already under immense stress due to their board exams. The uncertainty surrounding CLAT results is only adding to their burden. We will ensure that the matter is heard at the earliest and proceedings move forward smoothly,” Chief Justice Upadhyaya stated.
The Court decided to hear the matter in two separate segments—one for undergraduate admissions (CLAT UG) and another for postgraduate admissions (CLAT PG). To streamline the process, these cases will be clubbed together, and the NLU Consortium has accepted the court’s notice. The Bench also made it clear that multiple identical arguments from different petitioners would not be allowed, since several students have challenged the CLAT results on similar grounds. “There cannot be a repetition of arguments from multiple counsels. We will appoint a nodal counsel to represent the petitioners efficiently,” Justice Gedela remarked.
The Consortium’s legal representatives proposed having two separate nodal counsels—one for UG petitions and another for CLAT PG matters. The Court accepted this suggestion and asked the Consortium to provide a structured note outlining the issues specific to each category.
The next hearing is scheduled for April 7. This development follows a Supreme Court directive to transfer all CLAT 2025-related cases to the Delhi High Court, in order to prevent conflicting rulings from various High Courts. “The registry must ensure that copies of the petitions are provided to the NLU Consortium within three days. Any new petitions from other High Courts should be served within two days,” the Delhi High Court stated in its interim order.
The legal battle began on December 20, 2024, when a single-judge Bench of the Delhi HC, led by Justice Jyoti Singh, ruled in favor of a 17-year-old CLAT candidate, Aditya Singh, who had raised concerns over errors in the CLAT UG paper. After reviewing the flagged questions, Justice Singh found that two out of five questions contained clear errors and ordered the Consortium to revise the results accordingly.