Delhi High Court Questions NLUs: "Why is CLAT Not Conducted in Hindi? MBBS and IIT Exams Held in Hindi, Says Court"
A recent hearing at the Delhi High Court saw a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad raising a crucial question to the Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs). The court inquired why the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) could not be conducted in Hindi, given that entrance exams for medical and engineering colleges are already conducted in Hindi alongside English.
During the hearing of a plea advocating for the conduct of CLAT in Hindi and other regional languages in addition to English, the court directed its query to the counsel representing the NLUs. In response, the counsel informed the court that a committee had been formed to address the matter and would decide on the issue during its meeting.
Previously, the court had issued a notice in this regard. However, on May 19, it was revealed that the consortium of NLUs had not yet filed its response. Consequently, the bench instructed the consortium to submit its response within four weeks, with the next hearing scheduled for July 7.
The public interest litigation (PIL) was filed by Sudhanshu Pathak, a student from Delhi University, who argued that conducting CLAT solely in English disadvantaged students from non-English medium backgrounds. Pathak referred to a survey conducted by the Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access to legal education (IDIA) Trust, which indicated that over 95% of surveyed students in NLUs hailed from English medium schools at the secondary and higher secondary levels.
The petitioner emphasized that this situation perpetuated the privilege associated with English proficiency, as CLAT demanded a high level of English language skills, thereby granting an inherent advantage to students from English medium backgrounds. The petitioner's legal team, including Senior Advocate Jayant Mehta and advocates Akash Vajpai and Sakshi Raghav, presented these arguments.
It is worth noting that Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud recently highlighted the barriers that hinder access to legal education and the legal profession. The CJI specifically mentioned CLAT as an example of such a barrier, as it can only be cracked by students who have access to quality English medium schools.
TAGS: Delhi High Court Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs) Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) Hindi English MBBS entrance exams IIT entrance exams Division Bench Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma Justice Subramonium Prasad plea PIL Delhi University student Sudhanshu Pathak regional languages proficiency in English privilege access to legal education Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access to legal education (IDIA) Trust survey English medium schools Senior Advocate Jayant Mehta Akash Vajpai Sakshi Raghav Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud language barrier hearing response notice July 7 petition.
