SC refuses to stay admission process in NLUs

The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to stay the process of counselling for admission to National Law Universities across the country, being held after the declaration of results of the Common Law Admission Test on May 31.

A vacation bench of Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and Ashok Bhushan, however, agreed to a plea by a group of candidates, who claimed to have faced technical glitches during the examinations on May 13, that the process would be subject to the outcome of their petitions.

“It is made clear that any further steps in the matter will be subject to further orders,” the court said.

The court directed the copy of reports prepared by grievance redressal committee headed by former Kerala High Court judge Justice M R Hariharan Nair and comprising professor of Cochin University, Santosh Kumar G, to look into every complaint and share it with candidates' counsels.

The panel was formed by the National University of Advanced Legal Studies (NUALS), that conducted the test, after a nod from the top court on May 25.

Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh, appearing for the Centre and senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi and A Karthik, representing the NUALS, opposed a contention by the petitioners, saying there cannot be any stay for the counselling process as the panel has already gone into the complaints of the candidates.

Advocates Harvinder Chowdhury and Gopal Sankaranarayan, appearing for the candidates, submitted that further steps would be subject to the outcome of the pending batch of petitions.

The court put the matter for further consideration on Monday.