CLAT 2018: Rajasthan HC issues notice in (yet another) petition [Read Petition and Order]

Adding to a growing list of cases against the conduct of this year’s Common Law Admission Test (CLAT 2018), the Jodhpur Bench of the Rajasthan High Court today issued notice in a writ petition preferred by students of Sagar Joshi Law Prep Tutorial at Jodhpur.

Notably, the Bench of Justices Gopal Krishna Vyas and Ramchandra Singh Jhala has directed that the result of the CLAT 2018 will be subject to the outcome of the case. In the order passed to this effect, the Bench held,

“In the meantime, if the result of CLAT Examination-2018 will be declared before 29.05.2018, then, the same shall be subject to the decision of this writ petition.“

The petition filed through Advocates Deepika Purohit and Deepti Meena raises the following instances of technical irregularities and mismanagement during the conduct of CLAT 2018:

• Attendance sheets were not provided at the start of the exam. Rather, they were only provided in the middle of the exam, diverting the attention of the students for at least 4-5 minutes each.
• Computers were not properly functioning. Almost every petitioner faced the problem of computer hanging.
• Air conditioners were not functioning.
• In some cases, the question paper disappeared after appearing on screen
• One candidate was forced to change computers five times due to technical problems. As a result, she lost about 38 minutes of exam time.
• In some cases, the paper would skip ahead three questions when the Next Question button was clicked. As a result, one candidate could not answer at least 30 questions, while another could not answer at least 19.
• In one case, the first question did not appear at all. This question remained unanswered for the candidate.
• In one case, the candidate was asked to enter a password every 20-25 seconds. Despite repeated requests by the candidate, the invigilator did not know how to resolve the issue. 5-6 minutes of exam time was lost each time.
• In some cases, the answers shown to be marked were different from the answers actually marked by the candidates. Further, attempted questions were shown as not having been attempted. In particular, one candidate claims to have attempted a total of 12 questions in the math section. However, only 7 were shown to have been attempted.

The students claim to have submitted representations raising their grievances to the Nodal Agency, i.e the National University of Advanced Legal Studies (NUALS), Kochi. However, this did not yield any response. Hence, they were constrained to approach the High Court.

The student-petitioners have prayed for an independent inquiry into the conduct of CLAT 2018. Further, it has also been prayed that NUALS evaluate the exam paper in proportion to the answers attempted by the students, given the technical problems faced.

Sagar Joshi, founder of the petitioners’ coaching institute told Bar & Bench that the Court today heard submissions by two student-petitioners themselves, before directing the respondent authorities to respond by May 29.

Earlier this month, the Jaipur Bench of the High Court issued notice in a similar petition seeking re-conduct of CLAT 2018.

Furthermore, there are petitions currently pending before the Delhi and Punjab and Haryana High Courts. A petition has also been filed in the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

Read order:

Read Writ Petition: