The Delhi High Court recently asked the Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs) that if medical entrance exams and other competitive examinations such as JEE can be held in Hindi, why can’t the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) for admission to law schools, which is currently conducted only in English language?
A division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) to hold CLAT-UG 2024 not only in English but also in other regional languages, as specified in the eighth schedule of the Indian Constitution.
The exam is set to take place in December of this year.
The bench directed the Consortium of NLUs to file its reply to the petition, saying, “If medical education can be taught in Hindi, MBBS entrance examinations can be held in Hindi, JEE can be held in Hindi….what is this you are talking about?”
The counsel appearing for the Consortium of NLUs stated that the body did not view the PIL as adversarial and that it agreed with the request that the exam be held in other languages.
The court was also informed that a committee had been formed that will make a decision on the issue of conducting CLAT in other languages at its meeting today, May 20.
The counsel representing the Bar Council of India (BCI) further stated that the attorneys’ body’s All India Bar Examination is held in the majority of regional languages.
As Senior Advocate Jayant Mehta, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that the consortium’s response to the plea must be filed as soon as possible or the matter will become infructuous.
The court ruled, “The concern of senior advocate Jayant Mehta is a genuine concern, and thus, the Consortium of NLUs is granted four weeks-time to file reply positively.”
The case will now be heard on July 7, 2023.
Sudhanshu Pathak, a law student at Delhi University, filed the petition. He is represented by Senior Advocate Jayant Mehta, along with Advocates Akash Vajpai and Sakshi Raghav.
According to the plea, the CLAT examination does not create a “level playing field” for students with educational backgrounds entrenched in regional languages.
“They are linguistically disempowered in a hyper-competitive paper because they must overcome the additional hurdle of learning and mastering a new language. Naturally, candidates from English-medium institutions have an edge over their classmates from Hindi or other vernacular language schools,” the petition claimed.
It has been argued that the practice of taking the CLAT (UG) examination only in English language is arbitrary and discriminatory, and hence violates Articles 14 and 29(2) of the Indian Constitution.
The petitioner also relies on a recent survey performed by IDIA Trust, which found that over 95% of the surveyed students attended schools where English was the medium of instruction, both at the secondary and higher secondary levels.
“This figure has been more or less consistent with the results of the 2013-14 survey, wherein 96.77% of the surveyed students came from English medium backgrounds, indicating that proficiency in the English language continues to be a major factor for gaining admission to a top NLU in the country,” the petition stated.
It has also been submitted that the new 2020 Education Policy and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act of 2009 compel mother tongue to be the medium of teaching in schools and higher education institutions.
“….it is unfortunate that English as the only medium of instruction for CLAT-(UG) is preventing a large number of students from pursuing law (5 years LLB) as a course of study, who have previously studied in their regional or native languages,” the petition added.
