The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked the Centre and the Consortium of National Law Universities (NLU) to reply to a law graduate's plea challenging the requirement of physically appearing at the exam centre for the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2020 amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.
Justice Jayant Nath asked the central government to inform the court whether it would be permissible to hold such an exam at physical centres in view of the prevailing pandemic.
The court issued notices to the central government and the NLU, seeking their stand by August 10 on the petition which has sought that the online CLAT exams be allowed to be undertaken from home.
CLAT is a centralised exam for admissions to bachelors and masters courses in law in 22 NLUs in the country and is conducted by the consortium.
Under the CLAT 2020 notification, the exam would be held online at notified centres where computers would be set up for candidates to access the test.
The counsel appearing for the consortium initially said the plea was not maintainable in Delhi as the consortium was based in Bengaluru.
He also said that it was decided not to hold CLAT at home as it would lead to rampant cheating.