JOIN USThanks to leaked question papers, this year’s CLAT (Common Law Admission Tests) will not be held as scheduled on May 17 and has been postponed indefinitely.
Unidentified persons have reported to have broken the latches and the locks of two boxes containing the question papers on their way to Lucknow’s Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University (RMLNLU), according to the university’s registrar.
He noticed the breach while receiving the content sent via Blue Dart Courier from NALSAR Law University — who organise CLAT2009 — and had subsequently notified them.
This led to strong suspicions that the question papers could have been leaked.
In a statement posted on the university’s website, Prof Veer Singh, vice-chancellor, NALSAR and CLAT convener, said new dates for the tests will be announced after the meeting of CLAT core committee, which is made of the vice-chancellors of the country’s 11 elite law universities.
In 2008, the test was organised by National Law School of Indian University (NLSIU) and had 11,000 candidates vying for 1,100 seats. The number of candidates has increased by 4000 this year, indicating the system's growing popularity amongst aspiring law graduates.
Prof A Jayagovind, former NLSIU vice-chancellor and a core committee member, described the leak as an “unfortunate incident”. He said the only alternative is to reprint the question papers, which, given the increase in the number of candidates this year, would take time. Hall tickets issued for the May 17 test will remain valid for the rescheduled test.