Petitioner

Prakhar Bhatt
Counsel for the Petitioner
Prakhar Bhatt

Accused
Government of India

Supreme Court of India

The petitioner humbly submits that the name of the petitioner is Prakhar Bhatt and
he is a law abiding citizen of India. He is not associated with any political neither he has any
political agenda. He is currently pursuing his B.A.LLB degree from Tamil Nadu National
Law School, Trichy.
The petitioner humbly submits that he is in great pain that the Common Law
Admission Test (CLAT), being the national level exam for law entrance remains in
controversy every year. This year CLAT was for the first time held online by Ram Manohar
Lohia National Law University, has got mired in controversy with candidate and parents
making serious allegations of discrepancies.
The petitioner humbly submits that Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) is a
non-statutory body created for the convenience of the students seeking admission to the
various Law Universities in the Country under Memorandum of Understandings (MoU). An
entrance test is conducted to provide a list of candidates on the basis of merit-cumpreference to each University for admission to their UG/PG programs, as per the
qualifications, reservation and other conditions laid down under the respective Statutes of the
participating Universities.

The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) is an all India entrance examination
conducted on rotation by 16 National Law Universities (NLUs) for admissions to their undergraduate and post-graduate degree programmes (LL.B. & LL.M.).

CLAT Controversies chronology

CLAT 2008 one common exam for law aspirant to get admission in NLUS was
launched despite a section opposing the move.
CLAT 2009 this year examination was scheduled on may 17, 2009 and later re-scheduled to
may 31, 2009 as the question paper was leaked.

CLAT 2011- the candidates were disappointed with the standard of the examination. Answers
to many questions were wrong due to the negligence of the organizers.
CLAT 2012- this year CLAT was conducted by NLU, jodhpur which was marred by several
controversies. Candidates alleged that several questions were out of syllabus and the pattern
of examination was entirely changed.
CLAT 2013- Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur conducted CLAT this year. In a
surprising move, negative marking system with a deduction of 0.25(one fourth) for each
wrong answer was introduced.
CLAT 2014- this year CLAT was conducted by Gujrat National Law university, this year
expectation and result have far more difference. No one expected such a big mistake, the
student id complain about their marks. They complained that the marks which they got were
not what they expected. There was a big difference between the expectations and what they
actually got. Difference of 2-3 marks may be neglected but when they got complains about
differences of 20-30 mark, they felt that there was something fishy.
In 2014 GNLU, introduce barcode for the first time in CLAT examination, so that
result can be made easily and transparency could be maintained. But outcome was not as
expected. Due to some internal error barcode mismatch which lead to wrong result and even
the counselling was put to hold.
CLAT 2015- Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University, conducted CLAT which was for
the first time held online with a series of allegations and discrepancies.
1- QUESTION PROBLEM- It has been pointed out that many questions were copied
from previous years Common Admission Test(CAT) for admission into post graduate
diploma courses in IIM and other management institution.on CLAT official site it is
mentioned that mathematics should be asked upto elementary level, but they copied
question of mathematics from a postgraduate exam paper which contradict their
2-

statement.
Another allegation is that CLAT website promised to mail question after the test. But
later, CLAT authorities informed these would not be given. "This made candidates
suspicious because, many candidates got marks very less than what they expected,".
After protests by students, answer keys were mailed to students but not question
paper. "Without the question paper it is difficult to check even the authenticity of the

answer keys provided,". However, registrar dismissed this allegation, saying,

"Question paper was never sent to candidates
3- On the CLAT website in the FAQs section under point 11 it is mentioned that if some
problem occur in computer during the examination then they will duly take care of
time lost, each and every recorded by the server. Students also pointed out problems
with the examination centers. For instance, students were not given demonstration
before the test began. One student said, "Even when the test began, computers were
hanging.registrar was dismissive again. He said, "It is possible that computers might
have been slow or not worked at few places. But we had 20% buffer computers at all
centres. Even time loss shifting from one terminal to the other was compensated.
After login, countdown began only after students said so. But in reality no time
compensation was made candidate even mail them but they didnt response.
4- In English section of CLAT examination there is a reading comprehension portion
which generally consist of 10 question and the question asked in that is not directly
answered but are based on our understanding for which we have to read them
carefully. The screen position of reading comprehension was made such that if we
have to read it then we have to rotate it both vertically and horizontally which
consume more time .
5- Gk question of CLAT 2015 was totally different as compared to previous year, nearly
40-42 question were just copied from one website GK TODAY.
6- About 15-20 answers of CLAT 2015 were wrong. At first conducting body was not
ready to accept the wrong answers, after long protest they admitted only 3 answers as
wrong one.
7- Every year CLAT organising NLUs has to publish merit list. But this year they refuse
to publish the merit list. After a long protest by the candidates they publish the merit
list.
The petitioner humbly submits that he would like the High Court of Karnataka
to constitute an independent, permanent and autonomous body for conducting CLAT
on an annual basis in a efficient, error free and according to a fixed pattern and
minimising the scope for error in paper setting and delay and discreapancies in result,
counselling, merit list, for better future of candidates.
WORK CITED
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Students-allege-discrepancies-in-onlineCLAT/articleshow/47464842.cms

http://clat.ac.in/
http://www.law.careers360.com/articles/clat-2014-results-where-did-it-go-wrong
http://www.law.careers360.com/articles/clat-2014-result-gnlu-admits%E2%80%98mismatching-of-score%E2%80%99-and-%E2%80%98incorrect-merit-list
%E2%80%99
http://www.clatgyan.com/the-window/clat-controversial-law-admission-test/