Consortium of National law Universities Conducted CLAT-2020 in a Student Friendly and Glitch Free Environment
(Judicial Quest News Network)
Consortium of National Law Universities successfully conducted CLAT 2020 today for admission to 22 National Law Universities including NLSIU, Bangalore which was also directed by the Supreme Court to admit students only through CLAT. A total of 75,183 candidates applied for CLAT-2020 out of which 68,833 candidates had downloaded the admit cards. Of those who had downloaded the admit cards, 86.20% appeared for the test. At four centers 100% attendance was recorded. Centre Observers appointed by the Consortium have not reported any technical glitch.
CLAT 2020 was originally scheduled in May, 2020, but had to be postponed number of times due to Covid-19. Originally, the Test was supposed to be conducted in pen and paper mode but due to Covid-19 Consortium decided to conduct Online Center based Test. To facilitate students as many as 300 Centers were provided for the Test. This is the highest number of Centers in CLAT history. CLAT-2020 was the most student friendly national admission test as student’s convenience was attached highest priority by the Consortium. Even for a single candidate, we had provided a test center at Kavaratti (Lakshadweep) though this candidate did not appear. We had as many as 6 centers where there were 10 or less than ten candidates. We had 10 centers where we had 11 to 20 candidates. The highest number of centers were in Uttar Pradesh i.e. 45, followed by Delhi which had 25 centers. Maharashtra had 23 centers, Karnataka had 18 centers, 7 States had centers between 11-16 and 22 States had less than 10 centers.
Exam itself was made student friendly by giving students chance to review their answers and there were no negative marks for not attempting any question. Unlike previous years, the Consortium also reduced the number of questions for CLAT (UG) from 200 to 150. This year CLAT was Comprehension based and the students were given paragraphs and questions were asked on the subjects mentioned in the paragraphs and the related context or information. To help students familiarize with the new pattern of CLAT, number of mocks were conducted and for the first-time videos were uploaded on the Consortium website giving them tips about how to prepare for CLAT-2020.
All the parents of the candidates were advised to drop the candidates at a distance from the Centres. Each candidate was advised to come with mask, gloves, sanitizer and a transparent water bottle. To avoid crowding at the entry of the main gate, students were allotted four slots starting from 1:00 p.m. At the main entry of the Centre, thermal screening of all the candidates was done so that those who have normal temperature after sanitising their hands can get in and those with high fever and other COVID like symptoms were taken to the isolation rooms. Next step was Bar Code Scanning. To ensure that there is no collection of crowd’s conventional system of display of seating arrangement outside the Test Centres was avoided. As soon as a candidate scanned his bar code, he came to know the Lab No. and the system no. on which he was to take his test. As a health safety precaution, students were not asked to sign the attendance sheet. To ensure integrity of CLAT, candidates were permitted to just use the mouse and keyboard was disabled. Rough sheets were provided to the students on each system and they were asked to drop the used sheets in the drop box. Due care was taken to ensure an uninterrupted power supply at all the centres.
All centers were provided with the isolation labs where candidates who had high fever or other symptoms of Covid-19 were accommodated and allowed to take the test. In isolation Labs, the Invigilators were mandatorily required to be in PPE. Fortunately, very few insolation rooms were actually used.
The question paper and answer key shall be uploaded today and the candidates will be able to access their own answers in the responses sheet after two days. This facility has been provided to ensure utmost fairness and transparency. Candidates will be given an option to revise their preferences of NLUs if they so desire. Candidates are advised to regularly check Consortium’s websites. The Consortium has also resolved that instead of collecting fee for the entire year which is the usual practice, in view of Covid-19 hardship, only 50% fee shall be paid at the time of admission in different National Law Universities.
The Consortium of National Law Universities has constituted a Grievance Committee under the Chairmanship of Hon’ble Mr. Justice Rajendra Babu, Former Chief Justice of India to look into the grievances. The final result will be published on October 5, 2020 and the admission process from Consortium shall be completed on October 14, 2020.
Consortium’s President, Prof. V. Vijayakumar congratulated Prof. Balraj Chauhan, Convenor, CLAT 2020 and Prof. Faizan Mustafa on the successful conduct of CLAT. Prof. Balraj Chauhan in his statement thanked all the Vice-Chancellors of the participating Universities, Center Observers, invigilators and the Service Provider for their support. He also thanked Prof. Mustafa for the efficient secretarial services.
