Students anxious, will hear petitions challenging CLAT 2025 on priority: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court on Monday gave the Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs) two weeks to file its response to a batch of petitions challenging the outcome of the Common Law Admissions Test (CLAT) for admissions to NLUs across the country..A Division Bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela said that it will hear the matter as early as possible since there is a lot of anxiety among students. "We can hear the matter in two batches. There is a lot of anxiety among the students, who are young. Their board examinations are going on. Because of this uncertainty, there is a lot of stress ... Let them (NLU Consortium) file the (reply) affidavit. We just want to facilitate as to how early and how smoothly the proceedings can start," Chief Justice Upadhyaya said during the hearing today.The Court added that it will hear the matter in two batches since the matter involves two kinds of challenges - one concerning the CLAT for undergraduate admissions (CLAT UG) and the other for post graduate admissions (CLAT PG). These matters will be clubbed so that they are heard together. The NLU Consortium, which organises the exam, accepted notice in the matter today. .The Court also made it clear that it will not entertain duplicate submissions that may arise since petitions have been filed by multiple students on similar issues concerning the CLAT."We cannot allow all of you argue, there will be duplicity. We can appoint a nodal counsel," Justice Gedela explained."We will nominate one nodal counsel who will do it (make arguments) in consultation of all of you. Consortium (of NLUs) states that it would file its compilation responding to all the petitions," Chief Justice Upadhayaya added.The NLU Consortium's counsel, in turn, suggested that two nodal counsel be appointed to represent the petitioners - one who would handle submissions for the challenge to CLAT UG and another for arguments that concern CLAT PG candidates.The Court took note of the suggestion and asked the Consortium to share a note demarcating the CLAT UG and CLAT PG matters.The matter will be heard next on April 7..The development comes after the Supreme Court recently ordered the transfer of all CLAT 2025-related cases to the Delhi High Court.This was to ensure that a uniform decision is taken by one High Court on the matter instead of risking the possibility of conflicting judgments from various High Courts on the same issue. "We also direct the registry to ensure that the copy of the petitions is served to the NLU Consortium in three days. In case any other writ petition is received from any other High Court, then that matter would also be served to the Consortium within 2 days of being received," the Delhi High Court added in its interim order passed today. .Earlier, on December 20, 2024, single-judge Justice Jyoti Singh of the Delhi High Court partly allowed a plea filed by a 17-year-old CLAT candidate Aditya Singh, regarding certain errors alleged in the CLAT UG paper.Justice Singh concluded that there were clear errors in two out of five questions flagged by the CLAT candidate. The single judge, therefore, directed the Consortium of NLUs to announce revised results after making changes in the award of marks with regard to these two questions..This ruling was challenged before a Division Bench of the High Court, with the NLU Consortium contending that the single-judge had wrongly donned the hat of an expert. The CLAT candidate also filed an appeal before the Division Bench, seeking a further revision of his result. Later, the NLU Consortium moved the Supreme Court seeking a transfer of the matter to the top court.Meanwhile, petitions challenging the CLAT results were under challenge before the Madhya Pradesh High Court and the Bombay High Court, among other High Courts. To avoid such parallel proceedings, the NLU Consortium urged the Supreme Court to transfer the case to a single court. In view of such concerns, the Supreme Court on February 6 ordered the transfer of all CLAT-related cases to the Delhi High Court. .[Read Live Coverage below].Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.