Aspirants of the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2025 filed a petition in the Kerala High Court contesting the counselling fee structure imposed for admission to postgraduate legal studies at National Law Universities (NLUs) via the exam.
On June 17, Justice DK Singh served notice on the Central government, the Consortium of NLUs, the University Grants Commission (UGC), and the Bar Council of India (BCI) regarding a petition brought by three candidates now participating in the CLAT PG 2025 counselling process, Live Law reports.
The CLAT admissions counselling procedure has a two-tier price structure.
The consortium charges a counselling registration fee of Rs 30,000 for general candidates and Rs 20,000 for Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), Persons with Disabilities (PwD), Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), and Other Backwards Classes (OBC) candidates.
Candidates who choose to 'freeze' (accept the given seat) or 'float' (retain the seat with eligibility for upward movement) must pay a non-refundable confirmation fee of Rs 20,000 after being allotted a seat during the counselling stages.
The petitioners argue that this creates an unreasonable barrier to admission for economically disadvantaged candidates and violates the right to equality guaranteed by Article 14 of the Indian Constitution.
The petitioner-candidates stated that the fee structure is unreasonable and opaque, and that it creates a disproportionate financial burden prior to admission because the payments are not covered by scholarships or school loans.
According to them, the consortium of NLUs is not providing adequate service to warrant the imposition of such high costs.
They stated that the Rs 20,000 non-refundable fee violates UGC's Fee Refund Policy 2024-25.
The petitioners consequently requested directions from the court to set aside the counselling registration and confirmation costs and to force the consortium to repay the full sum to them if they are not selected in the admission process.
The matter will be heard on July 22.
