It has been reported that the Common Law Admission Test, that provides admission to National Law Universities, will now be conducted offline after 3 tests conducted online from 2015-18.
“Issues such as limited infrastructure and inadequate access to technology in rural areas made it difficult to conduct the test online and therefore, the consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs) in October 2018 decided to conduct CLAT in offline mode,” says Srikrishna Deva Rao, vice-chancellor of NLU, Orissa, and convenor of CLAT 2019.
“The offline test will provide wider access to aspirants from rural areas and avoid other technical glitches encountered in last year’s CLAT exam,” says Rao. From now onwards, the exam will be conducted by the executive committee of the consortium that is headquartered in Bangalore. The committee constitutes 3 NLUs namely National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore, National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR) Hyderabad, and NLIU, Bhopal.
“The decision of having a centralized way instead of one NLU conducting the test on rotation basis will not only bring transparency in the admission process but will also enhance quality in legal education,” he adds. “The decision of consortium to conduct CLAT 2019 in offline mode was made in the light of the fact that the number of students appearing in the entrance test is not large as IIT JEE or NEET. However, the consortium is open to going for an online test in future once the number of applicants increases, says Rao.