SC allows NLSIU to conduct separate admission test

The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru to conduct its separate online admission test for five-year BA-LLB course, as scheduled on Saturday.

The court, however, directed that neither the results of the examination would be declared nor any admission would be made on its basis till further orders.

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and M R Shah agreed to consider validity of the notification issued on September 3 for the National Law Aptitude Test, "looking into importance of the issue".

The court fixed the next date of hearing on September 16, on a writ petition filed by former NLSIU Vice Chancellor Prof Venkat Rao and another person, Rakesh Kumar Agarwalla.

The court said the examination will be subject to the outcome of the petition. It sought a response from the NLSIU within three days.

Senior advocate Nidesh Gupta, appearing for the petitioners, contended the NLSIU can't conduct separate examinations as Memorandum of Association of consortium of National Law Universities mandated a common test for National Law Universities across the country. He said due to the Covid-19 pandemic and flood situation in some states, the CLAT was rescheduled several times.

Senior advocate Arvind Datar, appearing for the NLSIU, submitted that this arrangement is only for this year. Next year, we will go back to CLAT.

"If admissions were not completed within time by September then the institute would have lost Rs 16 crores by not admitting the 120 UG students and other PG students," he said.

Senior advocates P S Narasimha and Gopal Sankaranarayana contended this was a serious issue and the Consortium would collapse if separate exam was allowed.

The CLAT (Common Law Admission Test), for admission to 22 National Law Universities across the country, was first scheduled on May 10. The NLSIU was invariably listed, being a parent University since 2007. However, due to Covid-19 pandemic, the CLAT was rescheduled a number of times. It is now to be held on September 28.

The NLSIU, on the ground to avoid zero academic year, decided to hold National Law Aptitude Test (NLAT) on September 12 through online mode.