[BREAKING] Supreme Court refuses to entertain petition seeking to postpone CLAT 2021

The Supreme Court today refused to entertain a petition seeking to postpone the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2021 scheduled to be held on July 23..The Bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Aniruddha Bose reasoned that such a plea cannot be filed at the last moment, as it would build massive amounts of suspense in the minds of about 80,000 students set to appear for the exam. .The order states,"The examination is scheduled on July 23, 2021 and we do not deem it proper to postpone the exam at this stage. However, we see force in the submissions of the petitioner that all safety measure have to be strictly followed at the exam centres to safeguard the health of the candidates taking the exam. The authority should not insist on students being vaccinated for the exam.".The plea said that the June 14, 2021, notification by the Consortium of National Law Universities is arbitrary and illegal since the physical conduct of CLAT on July 23 will be for unvaccinated candidates, since they are below 18..It was contended that the Consortium has failed to take into account warnings given by several agencies throughout the country regarding a possible third wave. Further, it is stated that the Consortium "erred in deciding examination in physical mode with vaccinated candidates when admittedly vaccines are not yet available for persons below 18 years of age and majority of the candidates in CLAT examination are less than 18 years of age.".The petition by Advocate Kunal Chatterji prayed for directions to the Consortium to postpone CLAT 2021 till the COVID-19 situation normalizes or to devise an alternative, secure method of conducting the entrance examination..The Bench, however, dismissed the plea citing the adverse impact such proceedings would have on students appearing for the exam at this time.