PIL before Karnataka High Court challenges CLAT-PG mandate for Indian Army's JAG

A public interest litigation (PIL) petition has been filed before the Karnataka High Court challenging a notification which mandates appearance in Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) to apply for selection as officer in the Indian Army's Judge Advocate General (JAG) Branch..The plea filed by a final year law student said that imposing a precondition that the candidates should have appeared for CLAT-PG entrance, violates the fundamental right to equality of opportunity in public employment guaranteed under Article 16 of the Constitution of India.It stated that due to entrance exam fees for National Law Universities (NLUs) being higher than entrance exams for other law colleges, the notification discriminates between those having the financial capacity for pursuing their higher studies in National Law Universities and others, who opt to join law colleges with lesser fees."The fee for participation in entrance exam for CLAT is ₹4,000. A law student has approximately 8 chances to appear for JAG entry. Now when the Clause adding preconditions that a person should have given the CLAT preceding year means if a person does not clear JAG in his first attempt then again he'll have to apply for CLAT which means he'll have to pay again and again ₹4000," the plea said.Further, given that the CLAT PG entrance examination is designed to test academic knowledge of a candidate wishing to join the Masters program in NLUs, the plea claimed that adopting it as an eligibility requirement without application of mind is unreasonable and arbitrary.It added that the State cannot discriminate between NLUs and non-NLUs as long as the institutions are approved by the government."Capable candidates can come from any institution and due to the above clause several students belonging to the economically weaker sections are put to prejudice. This even leads to indirect discrimination. Therefore, the clause is liable to be set aside," it said..Therefore, the plea prayed for quashing of the impugned notification and for directions to conduct the JAG exam on basis of other criteria like academic excellence..Recently, the Kerala High Court had upheld a condition mandating that applicants to the post of Assistant Law Officer at National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC) should have cleared the CLAT.