Breaking: CLAT Grievance Redressal Committee suggests compensating candidates with marks [Read Report]

The Grievance Redressal Committee constituted by National University of Advanced Legal Studies (NUALS) Kochi to look into the complaints of candidates who took this year’s Common Law Admission Test (CLAT 2018), has suggested that affected candidates be compensated with extra marks..Bar & Bench has accessed excerpts of the report submitted by the Committee, which has also suggested against conducting a re-test..The Committee headed by retired High court judge, Justice MR Hariharan Nair, has concluded CLAT 2018 was fraught with various imperfections..Some of the defects found by the Committee are as follows:.Failure of initial login as a result of which multiple login was required thereby affecting the performance of the systemConduct of CLAT 2018 without providing efficient software and computers resulted in avoidable interruptions in answering questions.Infrastructural deficiencies like want of/failure of air conditioners which stood in the way of best performance of candidates in many centres during the peak of summer.Power failure in many centres which resulted in loss of time and smooth performanceFailure of invigilators to facilitate re-loginFailure of grant of extended time in cases where first login attempt failed.The report also gives a break up of the nature of the defects and the number of candidates who suffered as a consequence of the same..The Committee had received a total of 4690 complaints regarding the conduct of the examination. The findings of the Committee are:.70 candidates lost less than one minute140 candidates lost less than two minutes94 candidates lost more than one minute1899 applicants needed multiple log-ins. Among these, 892 were not given due extension of time, out of which 623 got effective time of 2 hours for the exam. 558 students availed the extra time offered, while 449 did not avail the extra time offered..However, the Committee has stated that though the course of cancelling CLAT 2018 and conducting it afresh is open, it does not suggest the same, considering the magnitude of requirements to conduct such an exam and the need to ensure smooth education of successful candidates during the current academic year..It has therefore recommended that a method be adopted to compensate students with marks, considering the time lost by those who had to undergo re-login, or did not get extended time..The Committee has stated that it has no capacity to suggest a compensatory formula for the same. Hence, it has recommended that the committee be expanded by including a statistician of competence. In the alternative, it has asked for a formula or other compensatory solution suggested at the Bar..Importantly, it has stated that when the allotment list is redrawn after providing compensation as above, it has to be ensured that the rank of candidates in the existing list are not affected. The report states,.“That is to say, in case one or more candidates with the same mark acquires eligibility for the reason that another person with the same mark has got into the eligibility list as per the existing rank, (say 51), such candidates may be added with Rank Nos. 51A, 51B etc. and for accommodating the number of such additional entrants an equal number of supernumerary seats may be created on an ad hoc basis.”.This, the Committee states, will ensure that “no heart burn is caused to candidates who have already ensured their berth in the rank list”..Read the excerpts from the report below.