Supreme Court hears challenge to NLSIU's NLAT: Live Updates

The Supreme Court is presently hearing the plea challenging the decision of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru to base its law admissions this year on the basis of its independent National Law Aptitude Test (NLAT) scores instead of CLAT.

The petition has been moved by former NLSIU Vice-Chancellor Professor Venkata Rao and an aggrieved parent.

The NLAT was announced by NLSIU on September 3 and conducted on September 12. A re-test for candidates who reported facing technical difficulties during the exam's conduct was also later conducted on September 14.

Whereas the re-test paper was reported to have been leaked while the exam was still in progress, NLSIU later released a statement asserting that it would not affect the integrity of the exam itself and stating that those who indulged in malpractices during the exam would be weeded out at the admissions stage.

In the last hearing on the issue, which was held a day before the exam was to be held, the Supreme Court had allowed NLSIU to go ahead with the test's conduct but clarified that the test results would be subject to the results of the case.

Shortly before the hearing in the Supreme Court today, the petitioners have filed a rejoinder in the case, the NLU Consortium has supported their stance in a counter and NLSIU and its Vice-Chancellor have filed counters defending the conduct of NLAT and disputing the maintainability of the petition.

In the meanwhile, an appeal was also moved by five law aspirants on the issue challenging the Jharkhand High Court's decision to decline entertaining their plea on the ground that the matter has pan India ramifications.

The matter before the Supreme Court is being heard by a Bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan.

Live updates of the hearing today before the Supreme Court feature on this page.