CLAT Petition Delhi HC allows impleadment of CLAT 2013 Coordinator HNLU Raipur

The Letters Patent Appeal filed before the Delhi High Court in Shubham Singh vs. Union of India came up for hearing on Monday, September 10, 2012. The counsels for Union of India and Bar Council of India (BCI) accepted notice. However, the two effective Respondents: the Convener, Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) committee and the Registrar of National Law University Jodhpur (NLUJ), the organizers of CLAT in 2012, despite being served have not filed their vakalatnamas. 

The Letters Patent Appeal filed before the Delhi High Court in Shubham Singh vs. Union of India came up for hearing on Monday, September 10, 2012. The counsels for Union of India and Bar Council of India (BCI) accepted notice. However, the two effective Respondents: the Convener, Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) committee and the Registrar of National Law University Jodhpur (NLUJ), the organizers of CLAT in 2012, despite being served have not filed their vakalatnamas.

Advocate for the Appellant, Gopal Sankaranarayanan informed the Court that there is a possibility that the Convener, CLAT Committee for 2012 and the Registrar of NLUJ are doing this since the CLAT 2012 has been fully completed. Furthermore, since the CLAT Committee changes its office bearers every year, NLUJ is no longer involved in the larger issue of institutionalising CLAT and setting up of a permanent CLAT body (which is the main prayer in this matter).

Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan made an oral application before the Acting Chief Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw to implead Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur, the next year’s CLAT coordinator in this matter. The Court allowed the oral application and said that HNLU, Raipur should be impleaded as Respondent No. 7 and notice be issued to HNLU.

Shubham Sinha, one of the CLAT aspirants, had filed the LPA against the order of the Single Judge of the Delhi High Court, dismissing in limine the challenge to the contents of CLAT, 2012.

Thereafter, a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court comprising of Justices Vipan Sanghi and Rajiv Shakdar had allowed the appeal but limited the scope to consideration of setting up of “a permanent institution with full time experts” which would organise CLAT, so as to maintain consistent standards and avoid any discrepancies in future.

The matter will now come up for further hearing on October 15, 2012