The Injustice of CLAT

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THE INJUSTICE OF CLAT
Tanya Saxena, 2nd Year, NLIU Bhopal

Editorial Note: In this blog post, the author highlights the deficiencies which have been witnessed in the conduct of the Common Law Admission Test in the past few editions and provides suggestions about how the situation may be remedied.

The Common Law Admission Test, popularly known as CLAT, is one of the most prestigious exams conducted in the country for pursuing higher studies in the field of law. The results of this 120 minute examination determine the future of thousands of students, aspiring to become lawyers, across the country. Due to the immense value these results hold, several students who are unable to crack it in the first attempt, end up attempting it multiple times in the hope of securing a seat in a prestigious National Law University.

It is undeniable that in India, marks hold a lot of importance in a young student’s life. They are often a matter of parental pride or disappointment, as the case may be. In some cases, the marks of a student even become an integral factor of their identity, with the potential to either wash over all their mischief or alternately tag them as a ‘bad student’. While competitive law entrance examinations like CLAT are revered in this system due to the value that the marks obtained in them hold for a law aspirant, it is important to rationally evaluate the nature of such examinations.

The author believes that there is a need for parents to deliberate on whether a 200 question paper really judges your child well. A timed examination where speed triumphs over knowledge should surely not be viewed as using rational parameters to judge anybody’s potential or worth. If the purpose of the examination is to determine the suitability of candidates for the legal profession, the examination paper should be framed so as to evaluate the potential of a candidate on the basis of critical professional parameters. Therefore, it is suggested that instead of the current framework, an examination of the stature of CLAT should consider introducing a section which tests how a candidate responds to real life problems. Alternately, an essay describing the factors encouraging candidates to pursue law can enable evaluating authorities to correctly assess a student’s potential for success in law.

Given the background of competitive examinations in India and the emotions associated with their results it is important for the manner in which they are conducted to be scrutinised. Surely the examination authorities do not have any right to play with the futures of thousands of students attempting a competitive examination. However, unfortunately in the past few years, CLAT Committees have been doing precisely that.

CLAT is conducted every year by a different body on a rotator basis, constituted by one of the participating National Law Universities each year. It is argued that this proves to be an impediment to uniformity and error free testing system. Some of the failures of CLAT in the past few years are as follows:
·         CLAT 2015 had numerous anomalies in the questions. Some questions had 2 same answer options while others were ambiguous. One does not expect such petty issue to come up when more than 60,000 students appear for taking the test paying a fee of Rs.4000 per person.
·         CLAT 2017 once again, proved to be a perfect example of all that is desperately wrong with our testing system.  Riddled with badly designed, erroneous questions many of which had more than one correct answer, attempting the examination seemed like something straight out a horror movie.i
·         CLAT 2018 is as fresh as it gets. Students faced technical glitches and power-cuts, and suffered tremendously due to malfunctioning computers and the resultant loss of time. It essentially demonstrated everything that is wrong in the manner that CLAT is conducted.

This ordeal has existed for the last few years but there is shockingly no change in the manner that the examination is being conducted since 2008. Since students strive hard with the aim of making it into the top National Law Universities of India, a duty is cast upon the conducting authority to conduct the examination in a structured manner. In light of the numerous petitions filed in the High Courts and the Supreme Court regarding the conducting of CLAT, it is argued that there is an urgent need to constitute a robust, well equipped, structured and independent body for conducting the examination to avoid the mishaps which have continued to occur over the years.

In this context, it is important to note that a PIL has been filed by Professor Shamnad Basheer seeking to set up a permanent body to conduct the Common Law Admission Test.ii Professor Basheer states that almost all the CLAT exams have been characterised by egregious lapses over the years, including wrong questions, wrong answers, wrongful allotments, paper leakage and a host of other errors that have jeopardised the future of several thousand students. In one instance as pointed out by Professor Basheer, a question in CLAT asked candidates to pick the “world’s largest e-commerce company” from between Amazon and Alibaba, which respectively hold the record for the largest revenue and market value. Such ambiguous questions posed to students during a pressure timed examination can cause a lot of confusion and end up pushing them off track.

Further, on account of CLAT remaining marred with these hurdles in its execution, we need to consider giving a second thought to the offline method of examination. While incorporating technology should add precision to the process, the history of CLAT appears to indicate otherwise. In stark contrast, NLU-Delhi has been conducting its offline entrance test AILET smoothly from last many years. This begs the question of where CLAT is lacking. It is argued that while the inefficient use of technology is a big issue, other issues like the lack of well aware and considerate invigilators, denial of organizing authorities and the absence of efficient grievance redressal mechanisms are other points that need to be addressed.

Despite the debate and discussion that occurs on this issue, it is unfortunate to note that the same pattern is followed each year, i.e. the CLAT takes place with multiple issues, outrage from students and academics is witnessed on social media, petitions are filed, hearings take place in Court and yet there is no fruitful resolution to the menace. In the interest of the students attempting CLAT, it is important that the participating NLUs deliberate on the constitution of an independent body meant for the conducting of the examination. It is suggested that the examination fee collected from CLAT aspirants should be spent in a well planned manner, in selecting reputed companies for providing technological support for the purpose of conducting the examinations and designating exam centres with sufficient facilities. Additionally, it is also important for the examination authorities to properly brief invigilators at the selected exam centres regarding the various aspects of the examination and how to react in case of contingencies. Most importantly, it must be ensured that proper attention is paid to the framing of the CLAT paper such that it is free from errors.

Therefore, the authorities must work hard to ensure that CLAT does not become a platform for mockery of students’ preparations. The constant mismanagement and ill execution of CLAT is extremely disheartening, especially coming from the prestigious National Law Universities which examinees aspire to join. It is thus, urged that the concerned authorities should reconsider the current framework of conducting the Common Law Admission Test and incorporate relevant changes in the system so as to avoid a further debacle in 2019.

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i. CLAT Is an Example of Everything That Is Wrong With Education in India, The Wire (May 21, 2017), available at https://thewire.in/education/clat-2017-common-law-admission-test
ii. Prof. Shamnad Basheer’s PIL for CLAT permanent Body; SC issues notice to Centre, Bar Council and RGNUL, Live Law (September 4, 2015), available at http://www.livelaw.in/prof-shamnad-basheers-pil-for-clat-permanent-body-sc-issues-notice-to-centre-bar-council-and-rgnul/

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