No objection to holding CLAT in regional languages: Central government to Delhi High Court

The Central government has effectively supported the petition before the Delhi High Court to hold the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) in regional languages, in addition to English [Sudhanshu Pathak v. Consortium of National Law Universities through Secretary & Ors]. .The Union Ministry of Education has given its no objection to holding CLAT in regional languages. It also referred to the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which says that state institutions offering law education must consider offering bilingual education for future lawyers and judges in English and in the language of the state in which the institution is situated.A Division Bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Sanjeev Narula was apprised of the government’s stand on Friday when it heard a public interest litigation (PIL) by a student named Sudhanshu Pathak.The Court has asked the government to file a detailed reply in the case and listed the matter for further consideration on September 15. .The Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs), which conducts CLAT every year, recently filed an affidavit stating that it is not feasible to hold CLAT 2024 (scheduled on December 3, 2023) in multiple languages, because of the substantive and procedural difficulties involved.The Consortium said that an appropriate policy decision will be taken to govern future editions of CLAT after comments from experts and thorough consultations. It also contended that CLAT cannot be compared to the All India Bar Examination (AIBE), as there are fundamental differences between their testing patterns.“The AIBE is focussed on testing memory and general knowledge, and is therefore capable of easily being translated into multiple languages, without need for paying any particular reference to ensuring testing parity and uniformity of complexity of the question paper across various translated options… The pattern of the CLAT paper presents much more complex issues in translation, as it is focussed on comprehension and critical reasoning. If simple translations were to be done hurriedly without ensuring parity of difficulty in the various language options, it would open the floodgates for candidate grievances.”Further, the Court was told that the body does not have the capacity and the wherewithal to implement any additional language options without compromising on the quality and integrity of the CLAT exams..Not possible to hold CLAT 2024 in regional languages; cannot compare CLAT with NEET and IIT-JEE: NLUs tell Delhi High Court.The Bar Council of India (BCI) also recently supported the demand for holding CLAT in Hindi and regional languages. .The petitioner in this case is represented by advocates Sakshi Raghav and Akash Vajpai.