National Testing Agency tells Delhi High Court it can conduct CLAT in regional languages also

The National Testing Agency (NTA) told the Delhi High on Wednesday that it can conduct the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) vernacular languages apart from English [Sudhanshu Pathak v. Consortium of National Law Universities through Secretary & Ors]..Currently, the exam which governs admission to 22 national law universities across the country for LLB and LLM courses, is held only in English.NTA filed an affidavit before the Court stating that it is conducting examinations like NEET-UG, JEE and others in several languages and therefore, it has a pool of experts and translators in a wide range of subjects for preparation of question papers in multiple languages“Accordingly, the question papers in respect of the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) -UG can be translated into other Indian languages, such as Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu and design/ printing the requisite OMR Answer Sheet in the required quantity depending upon the number of candidates to be scheduled for the said Test,” the NTA contended.However, it added that if NTA has to conduct CLAT (UG) 2024, it could be done sometime in the third or fourth week of January 2024. The exams are scheduled to be held on December 3, 2023. The agency said that it needs at least four months for “development moderation/ translation/ proofreading/ vetting or validation of question paper, finalization of exam centres in major cities as per the past practice, movement of exam functionaries and materials to the exam cities/ centres and other pre-exam preparations”.The CLAT (UG) can also be conducted by NTA in Computer Based Test (CBT) mode like JEE (Main) & CUET (UG) in consultation with the Consortium of NLUs, the NTA added..The NTA filed its affidavit in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by a law student Sudhanshu Pathak demanding that CLAT be held in regional languages along with English.The petition was filed through advocates Akash Vajpai and Sakshi Raghav.Notably, the Bar Council of India (BCI) has also offered to hold the CLAT in regional languages..The BCI said that no deserving candidate should be deprived from giving CLAT on account of his/her inability to be proficient in English.The bar body contended that it has the experience of conducting similar exams (All India Bar Examination) in “most fair and transparent manner”. .The Central government had also given its no objection to holding CLAT in regional languages.