UJJWAL MADAN Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE result of Common Law Admission Test (hereinafter referred to as "CLAT") conducted by the third respondent on 13th May, 2012 is to be declared on 28th May, 2012. The three petitioners herein have approached this Court on 23rd May, 2012 to seek a direction to the fourth respondent to produce the question paper of the conducted on 13th May, 2012, as it is asserted by the petitioners that the questions put in the General Knowledge and Legal Aptitude section of this examination were beyond the scope of the syllabus prescribed by the third respondent. A direction is also sought to the contesting respondents i.e. the third and fourth respondents i.e. the contesting respondents to exclude the questions which were out of the syllabus and to then declare the result of this examination. A prayer for institutionalizing CLAT examinations to maintain a consistent standard has been also sought in this petition.

(2.) AT the hearing of this petition, learned senior counsel for the petitioners had drawn the attention of this Court to the Information Brochure issued by the contesting respondents for the CLAT, 2012 to point out that it was clearly stipulated therein that in the General Knowledge/Current Affairs Examination, the knowledge of Current Affairs of the students would be tested broadly pertaining to matters featuring in the mainstream media between March, 2011 and March, 2012.

(3.) REGARDING the Legal Aptitude section of CLAT, 2012, it was asserted by learned senior counsel for the petitioners that 35 out of 50 questions on the subject were completely out of syllabus as the questions put in the Legal Aptitude section had assumed that the students had a prior knowledge of law and that the questions on legal aptitude relied upon principles which did not explain the technical terms used therein, whereas, the Information Brochure of CLAT, 2012 had made it clear that the students/ candidates would not be tested on any prior knowledge of law or legal concepts and if a technical/ legal term is used in the question, that term will be explained in the question itself and that the Legal Aptitude section of CLAT, 2012 is of vital importance in breaking the tie between the two students scoring even marks. To indicate that the questions put in the Legal Aptitude section of CLAT, 2012 were out of syllabus, few illustrations from the Legal Aptitude section of CLAT, 2012, based upon the memory of the petitioners is appended as Annexure -P3 with the writ petition.