CLAT 2026 Controversy Escalates: Petition Filed in Supreme Court Seeks Judicially Supervised Probe.
(By Syed Ali Taher Abedi)
Delhi, 5, December,2026- A petition has been instituted before the Supreme Court of India, praying for an independent and time-bound investigation into the alleged leak of the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2026 question paper. The plea, filed through Advocate Malvika Kapila, raises grave concerns regarding the sanctity of the national law entrance examination and urges judicial intervention to restore public confidence in the process.
Allegations of Leak and Circulation on Social Media
The petitioners, a collective of law aspirants hailing from Scheduled Castes, Other Backward Classes, and Economically Weaker Sections, have submitted that videos, images, and other digital material purporting to contain the CLAT 2026 question paper and answer key were widely circulated on platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram mere hours before the commencement of the examination.
It is contended that such material, allegedly displaying the question paper and solutions, irreparably compromised the integrity of the test and vitiated the level playing field that is indispensable to any public examination. The plea asserts that thousands of genuine candidates have been unfairly disadvantaged, thereby necessitating urgent judicial scrutiny.
The Petitioners respectfully submit that the CLAT 2026 examination stands fundamentally and irretrievably vitiated by the rampant use of unfair means and systemic malpractices, allegedly facilitated through electronic gadgets and digital devices, which enabled unlawful access to the question paper prior to the commencement of the examination. The circulation of videos, images, and contemporaneous news reports unmistakably demonstrates that the sanctity of the examination process has been severely compromised. Such breach has resulted in a direct infringement of the fundamental rights of bona fide and meritorious candidates. A paper leak is not a mere procedural irregularity; it strikes at the very root of constitutional guarantees and undermines the foundational edifice of fairness, equality, transparency, and dignity that is intrinsic to any public examination conducted under the rule of law.
Demand for Fresh Examination Under Independent Supervision
The petitioners have urged the Court to direct the Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs), the organizing body of CLAT, to conduct a fresh examination under the supervision of an independent committee, should the allegations be substantiated. They argue that continuing with the existing results would cause irreparable harm to deserving candidates and perpetuate injustice.
Context of CLAT 2026
CLAT 2026 was conducted on December 7, 2025, across 156 centres in 25 States and 4 Union Territories, with more than 92,000 aspirants competing for approximately 5,000 seats in undergraduate and postgraduate law programmes offered by 25 NLUs. In addition, several other universities across India accept CLAT scores for admission.
The petition underscores that counselling for admissions is scheduled to commence on January 7, 2026, and any reliance on tainted results would undermine the fairness of the process and prejudice the rights of meritorious candidates.
Constitutional Obligation to Uphold Integrity
The plea emphasizes that examinations such as CLAT, which determine entry into the legal profession, carry a constitutional obligation to uphold integrity, transparency, and fairness. The petitioners argue that silence or inaction in the face of such serious allegations deepens public doubt and erodes trust in the system, thereby striking at the very foundation of the rule of law.
The images in question bear date and time stamps of 06.12.2025 at approximately 10:15 p.m., i.e., nearly fifteen hours prior to the scheduled commencement of the examination. Although the Telegram application permits post-upload editing of media files—an action that ordinarily results in an automatic “edited” tag—no such indication of alteration is visible on the said images. In the absence of any indicia of subsequent modification, the materials, prima facie, establish their authenticity and lend substantial corroboration to the alleged timeline of a pre-planned and organized leak.
