SC okays panel to resolve CLAT row

The Supreme Court on Friday approved setting up of a panel headed by former Kerala High Court judge Justice M R Hariharan Nair and comprising professor from Cochin University Santosh Kumar G to look into grievances of candidates who appeared in the Common Law Admission Test 2018 (CLAT) held on May 13.

A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and Indu Malhotra asked National University of Advanced Legal Studies (NUALS), Kochi, that conducted the tests, to invite the complaints of the candidates by Sunday 7 pm and address the issues, including technical glitches that they faced.

The court also asked the panel to first attend to each of the complaints - over 250 -already made and then those received afterwards. The NUALS has been told to create an email for it and file a status report on May 30.

A batch of petitions filed by candidates sought quashing of the CLAT-2018 examination besides a re-test alleging that several inconsistencies had cropped up during the test held on May 13 for admission to undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in premier National Law Universities. The results are scheduled to be declared on May 31.

The committee was formed by the NUALS on a suggestion made by the court on Thursday for finding wholesome and workable solutions to the problems faced by the candidates.

The court asked various high courts where the petitions were filed by the candidates not to proceed in the matter.