BCI offers to hold CLAT; says no student should be deprived of entrance because of lack of English proficiency

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has offered to hold the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) for admission to National Law Universities (NLUs) across the country [Sudhanshu Pathak v. Consortium of National Law Universities through Secretary & Ors]. .In an affidavit filed before the Delhi High Court, the Council contended that no deserving candidate should be deprived from giving CLAT on account of his/her inability to be proficient in English..The Council contended that it has the experience of conducting similar exams (All India Bar Examination) in “most fair and transparent manner”. It thus stated,"The Bar Council of India proposes that it may be permitted to constitute the body of experts through its Legal Education Committee, to hold CLAT wherein the Legal Education Committee council involve some sitting and former Hon'ble Judges, noted educationists of legal education and eminent jurists.”.The BCI made its stand clear in a detailed affidavit filed in support of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) before the Delhi High Court demanding that CLAT should be held in regional languages along with English.A law student named Sudhanshu Pathak had approached the High Court with the PIL. The petition has been filed through Advocates Akash Vajpai and Sakshi Raghav. The BCI as well as the Central government have supported the plea.However, the NLUs have said that it is not possible to hold CLAT 2024 in regional languages, but the possibility of including more languages is being explored for future entrance exams. The petition will now be heard on October 6. .In its affidavit, the BCI said that at present, CLAT is being conducted by a non-statutory body – the Consortium of National Law Universities – based on some understanding between them.It added that knowledge or lack of English language does not determine one's intelligence, ability, acumen, dedication, IQ etc. Therefore, prima facie the exam should be conducted in vernacular languages too, the BCI said.“At present the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution specifies 22 languages Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Bodo, Santhali, Maithili and Dogri. English does not find mention here, though.”.The affidavit concludes by stating that BCI has the mechanism in place to conduct a common entrance test in various languages for law courses in all institutions imparting legal education in the country."...the same will opportunities to more citizens of the country to appear in the exam and pursue law as a career."