[BREAKING] Consortium of National Law Universities will consider grievances raised by CLAT 2021 candidates regarding Rs. 50,000 counselling fee

The Consortium of National law Universities has agreed to expeditiously look into the grievances raised by Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2021 candidates regarding the mandate to deposit Rs.50,000 to participate in the seat allotment process for admission to National Law Universities (Sivapriya Ajith v. Union of India and Ors). .Justice Anu Sivaraman accepted the submission of the Consortium that the petitioners' grievances shall be addressed appropriately and directed that the petitioners and other similarly placed candidates may submit their grievances by e-mail to the Grievance Redressal Committee of the Consortium which is headed by Former Chief Justice of India S Rajendra Babu . .Even though the last day for registering for the counselling process by paying the deposit of Rs.50,000 was by 12 noon today, counsel for the Consortium informed the Court that it has extended the deadline for the same till 3 pm today..The petitioners had approached the Court on Thursday aggrieved by the imposition of condition that ₹50,000 is to be deposited for being considered for allotment of seats to NLUs even before admission..Justice Sivaraman had on Thursday issued notice to the respondents including the Bar Council of India and the Consortium of National Law Universities and posted the case for hearing today.As per the CLAT calendar, the final Answer Key was released by July 27 and the consolidated mark list of the candidates was declared on July 28. The calendar also provides that on July 29, the Consortium of NLUs will publish the counselling invite list.The counselling registration process for the applicants will take place from July 29 to July 30 up to 12 noon.Within this time, the applicants will have to pay an amount of ₹50,000/- and fill up the preference list with a minimum of five preferred universities. Only those candidates who make the payment of ₹50,000 shall be considered for the first allotment process which shall take place between August 1-5..In today's hearing, Advocate Thareeq Anwar, appearing for the petitioners submitted that on checking the websites of several NLUs, under the eligibility portion of the website, the only payments mentioned are: The application fees for General/OBC/PWD/NRI/PIO/OCI candidates was ₹4,000 and for SC/ST/BPL category candidates, ₹3,500.If candidates wish to obtain previous years’ question papers, they have to pay an additional amount of ₹500..Moreover, Anwar submitted that he had called up a certain NLU whose staff informed him that they were not even aware of the requirement of counselling fees for allotment to their university.Therefore, he reiterated that it is evident that the Consortium of NLUs does not have any common prospectus for the CLAT admission process and asserted their earlier argument."Nowhere in the prospectus of the NLUs or in the notifications in the Website of Consortium of NLUs had any mention been made of the requirement of Rs.50,000 to be paid as a prerequisite to the applicant being considered for the allotment.".[Read Order]