Due to multiple technical glitches in the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) this year, the Consortium of National Law Universities has decided that CLAT-2019 will be conducted offline.
A press release stated keeping in view that in last few years there have been glitches due to the fault of the service provider in the conduct of the online CLAT examination, the CLAT Consortium unanimously resolved that CLAT-2019 will be conducted Off-line. It was also resolved that as and when number of candidates taking up CLAT drastically increases or when admission to law colleges in the entire country would be based only on the CLAT score, the feasibility of online test will be considered.
The decision was taken at the 4th meeting of the Consortium of National Law Universities, which was held on October 17, 2018, at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore under the Chairmanship of Prof. Faizan Mustafa, Vice-Chancellor, NALSAR, Hyderabad and the President of the Consortium.
The permanent CLAT Secretariat was inaugurated by Prof. Faizan Mustafa and Prof. V. Vijayakumar who is Vice-Chancellor, NLIU, Bhopal and the Vice-President of the Consortium, in the newly constructed building of NLSIU, Bangalore in the presence of other Vice-Chancellors. Prof. Srikrishna Deva Rao, the CLAT-2019 Convenor and Vice-Chancellor, National Law University Odisha (NLUO), Cuttack joined the consortium meeting through Skype.
Further, the Consortium resolved that:
- A permanent website of CLAT will now be created and CLAT Secretariat would function throughout the year from its permanent office in Bangalore. It was unanimously resolved that Vice-Chancellor NLSIU, Bangalore shall be the ex-officio Treasurer of the Consortium. Prof. R. Venkata Rao, therefore, took over as Treasurer of the Consortium.
- In the LL.M. admission test, some subjective portion would also be included in 2019 PG CLAT. The details of subjective portion would be worked out by the CLAT Executive Committee which consists of the Vice-Chancellor, NLSIU, Bangalore; Vice-Chancellor, NALSAR, Hyderabad; Vice-Chancellor, NLIU, Bhopal as ex-officio members; Vice-Chancellor, NLUO, Cuttack as Convenor, CLAT-2019 and Prof. Paramjit S. Jaswal, Vice-Chancellor, RGNUL, Patiala as nominee of the CLAT Convenor.
- To improve the quality of the CLAT question paper, a question bank will be created, enabling experts from all the NLUs and other institutions to contribute.
- In each State, in addition to NLUs, CLAT will be conducted in other centres/cities as well, depending upon the number of candidates. The decision in this respect too would be taken by CLAT Convenor and Executive Committee.
- A workshop will be held in collaboration with NAAC and UGC on evolving objective parameters for the accreditation of NLUs by NAAC and other accreditation agencies.
