New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday indicated that it may transfer all petitions challenging the 2025 Common Law Admission Test (CLAT-UG 2025) results to the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The matter came up before a bench led by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar. The High courts of Delhi, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Bombay, Madhya Pradesh, and Punjab and Haryana are currently hearing the petitions.
During the hearing, the bench observed that it would be beneficial if all petitions were transferred to the one high court and indicated the Punjab and Haryana High Court, where the first petition over the CLAT results was filed, might get the petitions, emphasising that if all the matters were heard by one court it would ensure an expedited and consistent adjudication.
"The writ petitions pending in different courts should be dealt with one high court, as it would be expeditious. Issue notice returnable in the week commencing February 3, 2025," the bench ordered.
The apex court was hearing petitions filed by the Consortium of National Law Universities (CNLUs), seeking to consolidate multiple cases pending with the high courts. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta represented the CNLUs, which filed its plea through advocate Pritha Srikumar Iyer, suggesting that the petitions could be transferred to the Karnataka High Court.
However, the bench, citing the high court's efficiency and prior jurisdiction over the matter, suggested that the matter should be transferred to the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The counsel representing students raised concerns and some requested the apex court to consider transferring the cases to the Delhi High Court.
The counsel argued that the Delhi High Court had already passed a favourable order for some petitioners by identifying errors in two questions of the CLAT-UG 2025 exam and directing the consortium to revise their results.
On December 20 last year, a single-judge bench of the Delhi High Court directed the consortium to revise the result of CLAT- UG 2025 over errors in the answer key.
The test, conducted on December 1, 2024, determines admissions to undergraduate law courses in National Law Universities across the country. Several pleas were filed in different high courts alleging several questions in the exam were wrong.
On December 24, 2024, a division bench hearing the challenges refused to pass any interim order after prima facie finding no error with the single judge's order over the two questions, said the consortium was free to declare the results in terms of the judge's decision.
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