Less than a month after the Madras High Court directed the CLAT Committee to provisionally include the Tamil Nadu National Law School in the CLAT counselling process, another law school has approached the courts for the identical relief..Two students of the Damodaran Sanjivayya National Law University in Vishakapatnam (DSNLU) have filed a writ petition before the Andhra Pradesh High Court seeking the inclusion of DSNLU while a third student has approached the Chief Justice of India, RM Lodha, with a similar request..Success though, is unlikely..The High Court has directed that DSNLU be impleaded in writ, and posted it for further hearing in a few weeks time. Given that the CLAT results will be declared by the end of this month followed by counseling, the writ is likely to be rendered infructuous by the time it is eventually heard..As for the letter to Chief Justice Lodha, written by a third-year student, it appears to be more an act of desperation rather than anything else..The desperation is not without good reason..As has been stated in the writ petition, DSNLU has been writing to the CLAT Core Committee since 2010 seeking inclusion, requests that have been effectively ignored. In October 2013, the current CLAT Convenor, GNLU informed DSNLU that the Core Committee would be meeting on October 22, 2013 to consider DSNLU’s inclusion and that the DSNLU Vice Chancellor be present,.“In order to make the required presentation (if required using PPT Presentation) before the CLAT Core Committee for appropriate consideration of your case.”.Following the October 22 meeting, a five-member sub-committee headed by former Vice Chancellor of NLU Jodhpur, J. Mathur was consisted to examine the claims of both DSNLU and TNNLS..On February 3, 2014 the CLAT Convenor asked DSNLU to provide information on eight, specific issues such as,.Is “National” been reflected in the title of the University?Is the “National” character reflected (sic) from the presence of students and faculty members from other states at your University? Kindly give the statistics.Does the statute of the University reflect the co-ordination of Bar, Bench and Academics? Kindly state the relevant section..The information sought for was provided, and following another set of e-mails, on April 2, 2014, the CLAT Convenor stated that the CLAT Core Committee would take up this issue on May 24, 2014. Which is where things stand at the moment. And as per sources close to this matter, the five-member sub-committee has recommended the inclusion of TNNLS but not of DSNLU, weakening the chances of DSNLU becoming one of the CLAT schools this year..Irrespective of what eventually happens, the entire chain of events certainly highlights the closely-knit nature of these institutions. For instance, the Chancellor of DSNLU is the Dr. Lakshminath, the current Vice Chancellor of Chanakya National Law University, Patna. Furthermore, several current Vice Chancellors are part of the Executive Council at DSNLU..Furthermore, it begs the question as to the original purpose of establishing the CLAT in the first place and whether the CLAT Core Committee has been granted the power to choose which institute is included, and more importantly, which ones are excluded from the CLAT..As things stand, things could certainly be improved..While the problems in the CLAT answer key strengthen the argument for having an expert (and independent) body setting the examination paper, the current petition also calls for a deeper understanding of how institutes are recognized and included in the CLAT list of schools.
Less than a month after the Madras High Court directed the CLAT Committee to provisionally include the Tamil Nadu National Law School in the CLAT counselling process, another law school has approached the courts for the identical relief..Two students of the Damodaran Sanjivayya National Law University in Vishakapatnam (DSNLU) have filed a writ petition before the Andhra Pradesh High Court seeking the inclusion of DSNLU while a third student has approached the Chief Justice of India, RM Lodha, with a similar request..Success though, is unlikely..The High Court has directed that DSNLU be impleaded in writ, and posted it for further hearing in a few weeks time. Given that the CLAT results will be declared by the end of this month followed by counseling, the writ is likely to be rendered infructuous by the time it is eventually heard..As for the letter to Chief Justice Lodha, written by a third-year student, it appears to be more an act of desperation rather than anything else..The desperation is not without good reason..As has been stated in the writ petition, DSNLU has been writing to the CLAT Core Committee since 2010 seeking inclusion, requests that have been effectively ignored. In October 2013, the current CLAT Convenor, GNLU informed DSNLU that the Core Committee would be meeting on October 22, 2013 to consider DSNLU’s inclusion and that the DSNLU Vice Chancellor be present,.“In order to make the required presentation (if required using PPT Presentation) before the CLAT Core Committee for appropriate consideration of your case.”.Following the October 22 meeting, a five-member sub-committee headed by former Vice Chancellor of NLU Jodhpur, J. Mathur was consisted to examine the claims of both DSNLU and TNNLS..On February 3, 2014 the CLAT Convenor asked DSNLU to provide information on eight, specific issues such as,.Is “National” been reflected in the title of the University?Is the “National” character reflected (sic) from the presence of students and faculty members from other states at your University? Kindly give the statistics.Does the statute of the University reflect the co-ordination of Bar, Bench and Academics? Kindly state the relevant section..The information sought for was provided, and following another set of e-mails, on April 2, 2014, the CLAT Convenor stated that the CLAT Core Committee would take up this issue on May 24, 2014. Which is where things stand at the moment. And as per sources close to this matter, the five-member sub-committee has recommended the inclusion of TNNLS but not of DSNLU, weakening the chances of DSNLU becoming one of the CLAT schools this year..Irrespective of what eventually happens, the entire chain of events certainly highlights the closely-knit nature of these institutions. For instance, the Chancellor of DSNLU is the Dr. Lakshminath, the current Vice Chancellor of Chanakya National Law University, Patna. Furthermore, several current Vice Chancellors are part of the Executive Council at DSNLU..Furthermore, it begs the question as to the original purpose of establishing the CLAT in the first place and whether the CLAT Core Committee has been granted the power to choose which institute is included, and more importantly, which ones are excluded from the CLAT..As things stand, things could certainly be improved..While the problems in the CLAT answer key strengthen the argument for having an expert (and independent) body setting the examination paper, the current petition also calls for a deeper understanding of how institutes are recognized and included in the CLAT list of schools.