CLAT reaches the Supreme Court; Allahabad HC decision on age limit challenged

Try as one might, it looks impossible to keep the Common Law Admission Test away from litigation. Nine years after one Varun Bhagat approached the Supreme Court seeking a common law admission test, the CLAT is back in the apex court..Barely a few weeks after the Allahabad High Court set aside the maximum age limit for CLAT, organising university RMLNLU has decided to approach the Supreme Court. This decision was taken at a CLAT Core Committee meeting held yesterday, a meeting that took nearly the entire day. Dr. Gurdip Singh, the vice chancellor at RMLNLU, could not be reached for comment. .The appeal in the Supreme Court is barely surprising given the circumstances leading up to this point. While agreeing to abide by the Allahabad High Court’s decision, a notification released by the CLAT Committee indicated that this would be subject to the “final decision” of an “appropriate court”..And the fact of the matter is that the High Court’s decision may lead to some unforeseen consequences. By doing away with the age limit, and relying on a Bar Council of India resolution while doing so, the High Court has effectively said that anyone who has cleared the twelfth standard boards can write the CLAT..But what does this mean in practical terms? Rajneesh Singh, a CLAT counselor and mentor, says that it is highly likely that anyone above the age of 25 or 26 would actually write the CLAT. Having said that, there are chances that those in the 21-24 year bracket may attempt the paper, and do so at a significant advantage when it comes to logical reasoning and comprehension..Singh also says that the current practice of calculating an applicant’s age as of July 1, 2015 should be replaced with age as of January 1, 2015. The July cut off date gives an unfair advantage to those born in the first half of the year..Of course, what matters now is what the Supreme Court has to say about all of this. Six weeks before the entrance exam is to take place, one with more than 40,000 applicants, all eyes will be on the Supreme Court.