National Law School’s separate Entrance Exam NLAT 2020 cancelled by Supreme Court
The Supreme Court has cancelled the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) Bengaluru’s separate entrance exam, the National Law Aptitude Test (NLAT) 2020 which was held September 12, 2020 for admission to its five-year integrated BA LLB (Hons) program
The court while passing the order also directed that admissions in all 22 National Law Universities (NLUs) to be conducted in accordance with Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2020 which is scheduled to be held on September 28. The court also added that all NLUs should start their academic session by mid October.
A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan passed the order on a plea challenging NLAT 2020 filed by former NLSIU vice chancellor Professor R Venkata Rao and the parent of an aspirant seeking quashing of the NLAT-2020 notification released by NLSIU on September 4, 2020. The plea termed holding of a separate examination as “manifestly arbitrary and illegal”.
University had defended its decision to hold the exam, saying that due to the repeated postponement of the Common Law Admission Test and a trimester system, which was different from other universities, the university would face a “zero year” if admissions did not take place in September.
On September 11, the top court gave NLSIU Bengaluru to go ahead to hold a separate exam on September 12 but restrained it from announcing the results and admitting any student till the pendency of the plea.