Bar Council of India proposes to hold CLAT and declares NLU Consortium a non-statutory body | Confidant Classes for Career Consultancy and Coaching Classes

The Bar Council of India, in a supplementary affidavit filed before the Delhi High Court, proposed to conduct the Common Law Entrance Test (CLAT) 2024 in various regional languages.

The Bar Council of India said it had the “mechanism” to conduct the test for all National law colleges in “multiple languages”, as it had done in the past for the All India Bar Examination (AIBE). Currently, the CLAT exam is conducted in English by the Consortium of National Law Universities (NLU) on a rotating basis. The BCI said all National Law Universities (NLUs) were established by law, while the BCI, as a statutory body, has no role or oversight in the conduct of the CLAT.

“That the Bar Council of India proposes that it be authorized to constitute a body of experts through its Committee on Legal Education, to hold a CLAT in which the advice of the Committee on Legal Education involves certain honorable judges in service and former, prominent legal education educators. and eminent jurists,”
reads an affidavit by the Bar Council of India.

According to LiveLaw News, “The NLU Consortium had earlier told the High Court that while the AIBE can be easily translated and conducted in multiple languages, the CLAT exam involves many more translation issues. However, BCI supported the PIL and said that conducting CLAT in regional languages would give more citizens the opportunity to pursue a career in law.

The CLAT exam for the 2024 session will be held on December 3 according to the official schedule. The BCI’s response came after a public interest litigation, filed by Delhi University law student Sudhanshu Pathak, which argued that the CLAT (UG) exam “discriminates” and does not provide a “level playing field” for students whose academic training. They are anchored in regional languages.