CLAT 2021 (UG): Subject Expert Committee’s Recommendations Accepted for Deletion of Two Questions & Changed Answer Key
(Judicial Quest News Network)
The consortium of national law Universities (CNLU) has issued a press release stipulating its decision on the various an objection which were filed by the students pursuant to the recommendations of the subject expert committee and oversight committee.
CLAT-2021 was conducted on July 23, 2021 at 147 centres in 82 cities across the country. Out of 70,277 candidates who are registered, 66887 downloaded their admit cards and 62,106 appeared before the Test.
It is mentioned in the press release that after a through enquiry the Subject expert Committee accepted the objections of the students and deleted (Question Number143) and the Answer key was changed for 2 questions (Question Number 61 and 98) for CLAT undergraduate exam (UG)
All stakeholders conducting CLAT-2021 were provided with COVID Kits containing sanitizer, mask, face shield, and hand-gloves. Apart from increasing Test Centres from previous years, the Consortium had directed the Centres to accommodate less than 50% of actual seating capacity in the examination halls. The Consortium organised CLAT-2021 to ensure the health and safety of all stakeholders of CLAT-2021.
Further the press release says that all the candidates were allowed to carry their Question Booklet and the carbon copy of the OMR response sheet. The Consortium published the Master Question Booklet with Provisional Answer Key at 09:00 P.M. on the day of the Test itself inviting objection(s) on Questions and Answer Key. The Portal for objections closed at 09:00 P.M. on July 24, 2021. The Consortium Office received 24 objections on 11 out of 120 Questions and Answer Key for the PG, and 1,026 Objections were received on 61 Questions and Answer Key for the UG.
The press release noted that The Executive Committee of Consortium met on July 24, 2021 and directed the Convenor to constitute a Committee of three subject experts for each of the five sections of UG and a Committee of three subject experts for PG.
The Convenor constituted the Committees of renowned scholars, deans, and heads of departments immediately after the said meeting to look into the objections. Question Papers with Provisional Answer Key along with all the objections in each section were placed before the respective Committees of each section.
There were 47 objections on 13 out of 30 Questions of English Section; 53 objections on 7 out of 35 Questions on General Knowledge & Current Affairs; 492 objections on 21 out of 40 Questions of Legal Reasoning; 67 objections on 8 out of 30 Questions of Logical Reasoning; and 367 objections on 12 out of 15 Questions of section on Quantitative Techniques.
The consortium further specified that Subject Expert Committees deliberated on all objections in a blend of physical and virtual mode and submitted their reports. The Executive Committee in its meeting held on July 25, 2021 directed the Convenor to constitute an Oversight Committee to be chaired by a former Chief Justice of a High Court to review the observations and recommendations of the Subjects Expert Committee. Accordingly, the Convenor constituted an Oversight Committee and Question Booklets and Answer Keys, along with the objections raised by candidates, all observations and working notes prepared by Subject Expert Committees were presented before the Oversight Committee consisting of deans, professors, and vice-chancellors as renowned experts in the areas of each section of CLAT. On July 27, 2021, sixteen members of five Subject Page 2 of 2 Expert Committees met in a common meeting in a blend of physical and virtual mode at 10.30 A.M. and recorded its observations and recommendations.
The Oversight Committee chaired by a former Chief Justice of a High Court met in a blend of physical and virtual mode at 01.30 P.M. on July 27, 2021, and considered Candidates’ objections, working notes and minutes of the Subject Expert Committees containing observations and recommendations. Upon considering all the materials, the Oversight Committee accepted the recommendations of the Subject Expert Committee on Question Number 143 of UG and recommended for the deletion of the said question. The Committee also accepted the recommendation on Question Numbers 86 and 145 of UG and 116 of PG and further recommended a requisite amendment to the Answer Keys. However, the Oversight Committee overruled two recommendations of the Subject Expert Committee on Question Numbers 61 and 98 respectively. There were two correct answers to both these questions (61 and 98) in the options provided. The Subject Expert Committee had recommended for the deletion of both the questions, but the Oversight Committee recommended that both the options be deemed to be correct and requisite amendments be made in the Final Answer Key.
On July,27,2021 the Subject Expert Committee recorded its observations and recommendations regarding the objections filed by aggrieved students. Consequently the oversight committee accepted all the recommendations of the subject Expert Committee and decided to delete the said question.
