The Delhi High Court on Monday, in its interim order, permitted Delhi University (DU) to offer admission to Five-year Integrated Law Courses for the Academic Year 2023–24 solely on the basis of the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT UG 2023) result.
The interim direction of Division bench headed by the Chief Justice of Delhi came on Monday during the hearing of a plea seeking direction to quash the notification dated August 4, 2023, issued by the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi for admission to Five-year Integrated Law Courses for the Academic Year 2023-24 solely on the basis of Common Law Admission Test (CLAT UG 2023) result.
The bench of Justices Satish Chander Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula noted the fact that classes have already started for this academic year in all other universities and this matter required detailed consideration and fixed the matter for November 23, 2023.
Earlier, the court had asked the Counsel representing Delhi University that when all other universities are relying on CUET marks, why is DU considering CLAT for admission to the five-year integrated law courses?
The direction came on Monday during the hearing of a petition challenging notification issued by Delhi University (DU) for admission to Law courses solely on the basis of the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT UG 2023) result.
The plea also sought direction to implement the scheme of the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) UG 2023 introduced by the Ministry of Education (MoE) for admission into all UG programmes in Central Universities for Academic session 2023-24 under the Ministry of Education.
The plea has been moved by Prince Singh, a student of law at University of Delhi stated that the petitioner is, like many other students especially those who are aspiring to be law student, aggrieved by the haste and capricious decision of the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi that admission to Five-Year Integrated Law Courses shall be solely based upon merit in the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) UG 2023 result.
It further stated that on 4.08.2023, the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi released a notification having a long-awaited welcoming decision to offer admissions in Five-year Integrated Law Courses which was the dream of many students across the country.
However, the faculty then imposed an unreasonable and arbitrary condition for the admission to the same Courses shall be solely based upon merit in the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) UG 2023 result which is violative of the fundamental Right to equality under Article 14 and Right to education recognised under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, stated the petitioner.
The CLAT exam has been conducted in English medium since its inception.
As per the plea, however, the CUET (UG) exam is being conducted in 13 languages i.e., English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. It is worth noting here that the CUET is more inclusive more diverse and in tune with the mandate of the National Educational Policy.