The next edition of the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) for admission to National Law Universities (NLUs) is expected to be held on May 10, 2020 (Sunday). A press release confirming the same has been issued by the NLU Consortium today..The release further states that the official notification regarding CLAT 2020 will be released in the last week of December 2019. Online application forms for the exam will be made available on January 1, 2020..Professor Balraj Chouhan, Vice-Chancellor of Dharmashastra National Law University (DNLU), Jabalpur will be the convenor for CLAT 2020..Change in Question Pattern.Notably, the NLU Consortium has also intimated that there will be a change in the question pattern for the CLAT for UG admissions (BA LLB). In this regard, it has been informed that comprehension based questions would be asked from Quantitative Techniques, English, Current Affairs, Deductive Reasoning and Logical Reasoning..Further, the number of questions will be reduced from 200 to 120-150 questions. The descriptive portion will remain the same as last year’s pattern. The reason behind the changes has been explained in the release..“Prof. (Faizan) Mustafa (who has been heading the NLU Consortium as its President) said that asking students to answer 200 questions in 120 minutes is not right as it puts students under lot of mental stress. The exam will remain off line and the duration will be two hours. He told that the idea is to get better students to National Law Universities who have competence in reading texts and demonstrate skills in inferential reasoning. Similarly, the PG admission test will also have comprehension based questions.”.The Consortium has also authorised the Executive Council of CLAT 2020 to study the possibility of introducing cut-off marks for the LL.M exam..Plans to introduce Faculty Training, Scholarship programmes.Following its meeting held today, the Consortium has also resolved to introduce training programmes for the faculty at NLUs and scholarship/fee concessions for students. As informed in the release,.“The Consortium also resolved to undertake several Faculty Development Programmes in various member NLUs and launch a scheme of Scholarship / Fee Concessions for the students of NLUs. The Consortium would also assist the member NLUs in upgrading their library, IT facilities and other infrastructure.“.Change in Office- Bearers.The position of NLU Consortium President was today handed over to Prof V Vijaykumar, Vice Chancellor of NLIU, Bhopal. Outgoing President and Vice Chancellor of NALSAR, Hyderabad, Prof Faizan Mustafa thanked all the members for their co-operation and support during his term as president..Prof Paramjit S Jaswal, Vice-Chancellor of RGNUL, Punjab, has been elected as the Vice-President. Prof Srikrishna Deva Rao, Vice-Chancellor of NLU Odisha, was elected as Member of the Executive Council for CLAT, 2020. Prof V Kesava Rao, Vice-Chancellor of NUSRL, Ranchi, will attend the meetings of the Executive Council as Special Invitee for the purposes of conduct of CLAT 2020..[Read the Full Press Release].Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.
