NLSIU former VC moves SC against ‘arbitrary, illegal’ move on separate Entrance Test

On Tuesday, Ex-Vice-Chancellor of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) moved the Apex Court against the university’s decision to conduct a separate admission test for admission to undergraduate BA LLB (Hons) programme. In his petition, Ex-V-C R Venkata Rao said that the “unilateral decision was taken without any application of mind, thereby completely prejudicing the students at the final hour”. The decision, he maintained, has put students’ career “in jeopardy for purely whimsical reasons”.

The plea, filed through Lawyers Sughosh Subramanyam & Vipin Nair, stated that it is “apparent” that the step is “solely directed at creating an elitist institution which caters to those who are able to afford to take the test…while completely ignoring aspirations of the poor, marginalised & less privileged candidates.”

According to Mr Rao, it appears that the sole aim of the move is to turn NLSIU “from an island of excellence to an island of exclusion”.

The NLSIU has decided to conduct a separate test — National Law Aptitude Test (NLAT) – for admission for 2020-21 academic year in view of the delay in the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) for admission to the country’s national law universities. CLAT was originally scheduled for May 10 but was rescheduled multiple times on account of the Coronavirus situation.

In his appeal, the former V-C contended that the incumbent V-C didn't have requisite consent from the university’s academic counsel for holding a separate examination, & that technical requirement of having a laptop & 1 Mbps internet speed for taking the home-proctored examination is “onerous, arbitrary, discriminatory & illegal”. 

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