The Delhi High Court on Monday, March 3, directed the Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs) to submit its response within two weeks regarding a series of petitions challenging the results of the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2025.
The case concerns admissions to NLUs across the country, stated a report by The New Indian Express.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela emphasised the urgency of the matter, considering the anxiety among students.
"We understand that students are already under immense stress due to their board exams. The uncertainty surrounding CLAT results is only adding to their burden. We will ensure that the matter is heard at the earliest and proceedings move forward smoothly," Chief Justice Upadhyaya stated during the hearing.
The court decided to hear the matter in two separate segments-one for undergraduate admissions (CLAT UG) and another for postgraduate admissions (CLAT PG). To streamline the process, these cases will be clubbed together, with the NLU Consortium having accepted the court's notice.
The Bench also made it clear that it would not allow multiple identical arguments from different petitioners, as several students have challenged the CLAT results on similar grounds.
"There cannot be a repetition of arguments from multiple counsels. We will appoint a nodal counsel to represent the petitioners efficiently," Justice Gedela remarked.
The consortium's legal representatives proposed having two separate nodal counsels, one to handle the CLAT UG petitions and the other for CLAT PG matters. The court considered this suggestion and asked the consortium to provide a structured note outlining the issues specific to each category.
The next hearing has been scheduled for April 7.
The development follows a Supreme Court directive to transfer all CLAT 2025-related cases to the Delhi High Court to prevent conflicting rulings from multiple high courts, according to the report by The New Indian Express.
"The registry must ensure that copies of the petitions are provided to the NLU Consortium within three days. If any fresh petitions related to CLAT are received from other High Courts, they should be served to the Consortium within two days," the Delhi High Court stated in its interim order.
This legal battle began on December 20, 2024, when a single-judge Bench of the Delhi High Court, led by Justice Jyoti Singh, ruled in favour of a 17-year-old CLAT candidate, Aditya Singh. The student had raised concerns over errors in the CLAT UG paper.
Upon reviewing the flagged questions, Justice Singh found that two out of five questions contained clear errors. As a result, the Court ordered the Consortium to revise the results accordingly.
However, the NLU Consortium challenged this ruling before a Division Bench, arguing that the single judge had overstepped by making an expert assessment.
At the same time, the candidate also sought further revision of his result, leading to an appeal before the Division Bench.
While this dispute was unfolding in Delhi, similar petitions challenging the CLAT results were filed before the Madhya Pradesh High Court and the Bombay High Court. To prevent parallel proceedings, the consortium approached the Supreme Court, requesting the transfer of all related cases to a single court.
On February 6, 2025, the Supreme Court agreed and transferred all CLAT-related cases to the Delhi High Court, ensuring uniformity in legal proceedings.
