CLAT 2021: Students Speak Up Against the High Cost of Raising Objections

The deadline to raise objections to the CLAT 2021 paper (UG and PG) ended yesterday.

As per the CLAT notification, “a fee of Rs. 1,000/– (Rs. One Thousand only) is to be paid for each objection and if the objection turns out to be valid, the said fee will be refunded/remitted to the same account from which it was paid. “

The notification further says that if the candidates “raise Objections on their own Question Booklet and the Question Number does not match with the Master Question Booklet, CLAT Office will not respond to such objection(s).“

This condition has come under censure, with students writing about how this would prohibit people from speaking up. Many have written on social media as well.

This is especially so since every year’s CLAT has had some form of a hiccup. Whether it is results being republished, or the computers’ malfunctioning, or the question paper being riddled with inconsistencies.

This year’s question paper also has some inconsistencies. Read CLATalogue’s and CLATapult’s analysis here.

Plus, the fact that CLAT charges Rs. 4,000, which is a pretty steep amount by any standard. Asking students to pay an additional Rs. 1,000 per question would be a big hindrance to people wanting to raise grievances.

As it is, more than 70,000 students give the exam. This means that the Consortium of NLUs, which organizes the exam, gets a large sum of money just from the exam fees itself.

The pattern of holding CLAT points to a larger issue that plays out at law schools also. Diversity surveys by NUJS and NLS show that these colleges largely comprise people from high-income families.

If law has to be made a more inclusive space, then it must start from how the induction process works. The Consortium must make amends to the CLAT exam.