Common Law Admission Test

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Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) is a centralised test for admission to 7 National Law Universities in India. The test is taken after the 12th grade for admission to graduation (also known as Bachelors) courses in Law. This exam was conducted for the first time on 11 May 2008. [1] A total number of 1037 seats [2] were offered to be filled by the test. The results of the first CLAT were announced on May 19, 2008. [3] The two-hour admission test consists of objective type covering questions on English, general knowledge, basic mathematics, besides legal and logical reasoning. [4]

Contents

[edit] History

See also: Legal_education#India

Before the introduction of this test, all the National Law Schools conducted their separate entrance examination, requiring the candidate to prepare and appear separately for each of the examination. At various times the examination of two or more National Law Schools also quashed with each other or with other major entrance tests such as the IIT-JEE and All India Pre-Medical Tests which made them miss out on a few entrance tests while also putting a lot of pressure on the students both physically and financially. [5]

There are eleven law schools in India, first of which was the National Law School, (Bangalore) which admitted its first batch of students in 1987. It admitted the students on the basis of the national entrance test conducted by it generally in the month of May each year. [6] With the emergence of other law schools, which also sought to conduct their admission tests at around the same time, students faced a hard time preparing for them. From time to time the issue was raised by different persons to conduct a common entrance exam to reduce the burden of the students to give multiple test, but given the autonomous status of each law school, there was no nodal agency to co-ordinate an action to this regard. [7]

The matter drew national attention when a Public Interest Litigation was filed by one Mr. Varun Bhagat against the Union of India and various National Law Schools in the Supreme Court of India in 2006. The Honourable Chief Justice of India directed the Union of India to consult with the National Law Schools to formulate a common test. The move was strongly supported by the Bar Council of India. [8] [9]

Given the lack of a central nodal authority to bring forth a consensus on the issue, the Ministry of Human Resources Development, (Government of India) and the University Grants Commission of India organized a meeting of the Vice-Chancellors of seven National Law Schools along with the Chairman of the Bar Council of India. After a few such meetings, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by the Vice Chancellors of the seven law schools on 23rd November, 2007 to conduct a common admission test. The Common Law Admission Test will be conducted each year by each of the law colleges and the responsibility of conducting the exam will be rotated and given on the basis of seniority. Nonetheless, the matter has not been resolved completely as there are other national law schools which are not taking part in CLAT. [10]

[edit] Participating Schools

See also: Autonomous law schools in India

For the academic year 2008-09, the admissions will be made by the following law schools on the basis of the scores obtained by the candidates in CLAT; [11]

  1. National Law School, (Bangalore)
  2. NALSAR University of Law, (Hyderabad)
  3. National Law Institute University, (Bhopal)
  4. The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, (Kolkata)
  5. National Law University, (Jodhpur)
  6. Hidayatullah National Law University, (Raipur)
  7. Gujarat National Law University, (Gandhinagar)

Though only these seven law schools are part of CLAT, a few other law schools have agreed in principle to take the CLAT score as the basis for their admission. These are; [12]

  1. Chanakya National Law University, (Patna)
  2. Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University, (Lucknow)
  3. Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, (Patiala)

[edit] Non-Participating Schools

See also: List of law schools in India

Despite the Supreme Court in the Public Interest Litigation and the efforts of the Ministry of Human Resources Development, not all law schools in the country could come to an agreement to be participants to CLAT. Some law schools choose to continue with their existing admission test system by conducting their own entrance examinations. Some of the main ones are;

  1. Symbiosis Law School, (Pune)
  2. ILS Law College, (Pune)
  3. Amity Law School, (Delhi)
  4. National University of Advanced Legal Studies, (Kochi)
  5. Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University, (Chennai)
  6. Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law, (Kharagpur
  7. KIIT National Law School, (Bhubaneswar)
  8. Faculty of Law, Delhi University, (Delhi)
  9. Government Law College, (Mumbai)
  10. School of Law, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, (Dehradun)
  11. Faculty of Law, Banaras Hindu University, (Varanasi)

[edit] Method of Allocation

The CLAT form provides the students with a preference list.Each student fills the preference list,according to the colleges he/she desires.On the basis of these preferences and ranks obtained,students are allocated colleges. Over 70% of the students appearing for the inaugral CLAT marked NLSIU,Bangalore as their preferred college.[citation needed]

[edit] Formal Structure of CLAT

CLAT is administered by the seven participating law schools each year turn by turn, on the basis of seniority. For the first year the National Law School, (Bangalore) would be in-charge of conducting CLAT. As a formal structure, CLAT would be administered through two Committees which have been constituted by the participating law schools. These are the 'Core Committee', which constitutes of the Vice-Chancellors/Directors of the participating law schools and the 'Implementation Committee' which constitute of the Registrars of the participating law schools. The current members of the two committees (ex-officio) are as under;

Core Committee [13]

  1. Prof. A. Jayagovind, Vice-Chancellor, National Law School, (Bangalore) Convenor
  2. Prof. Ranbir Singh, Vice-Chancellor, NALSAR University of Law, (Hyderabad)
  3. Dr. S. Suryaprakash, Director (Incharge), National Law Institute University, (Bhopal)
  4. Prof. M. P. Singh, Vice-Chancellor, The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, (Kolkata)
  5. Justice N.N. Mathur, Vice-Chancellor, National Law University, (Jodhpur)
  6. Prof. M. K. Srivastava, Vice-Chancellor, Hidayatullah National Law University, (Raipur)
  7. Dr. Shobalata V. Udapudi, Director (Incharge), Gujarat National Law University, (Gandhinagar)

Implementation Committee [14]

  1. Prof. V. Vijayakumar, National Law School, (Bangalore) Convenor
  2. Prof. Ghanshyam Singh, NALSAR University of Law, (Hyderabad)
  3. Mr. R. K. S. Gautam, National Law Institute University, (Bhopal)
  4. Dr. Arup Poddar, The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, (Kolkata)
  5. Mr. Ratan Lahoti, National Law University, (Jodhpur)
  6. Dr. S. Shanthakumar, Hidayatullah National Law University, (Raipur)
  7. Mr. Avinash Bagi, Gujarat National Law University, (Gandhinagar)

[edit] References

  1. ^ First CLAT on 11th May.
  2. ^ CLAT Statistics.
  3. ^ CLAT Results.
  4. ^ CLAT Structure.
  5. ^ Why CLAT.
  6. ^ NLS History.
  7. ^ CLAT History (p. 5).
  8. ^ CLAT History. The Hindu.
  9. ^ About CLAT.
  10. ^ CLAT History (p. 5).
  11. ^ CLAT Participating Law Schools.
  12. ^ CLAT Non-participating Schools (p. 6).
  13. ^ CLAT Core Committee.
  14. ^ CLAT Implementation Committee.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links