The 2021 Common Law Admission Test (CLAT), which had been scheduled to take place on Sunday, 13 June 2021, may again face a clash with other school exams that will cause it to discuss whether another postponement may be required.

As widely reported, the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) has announced the ISC exam timetable to run from 8 April to 16 June, but with a break in exams on Sunday 13 June (the CLAT date).

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has also announced its updated schedule for Class 12 Senior School Certificate Examination, which will start on 4 May and end on 14 June, again with a break on the CLAT day of Sunday 13 June. The revised dates were announced on 5 March.

We understand that the CLAT consortium of national law school vice-chancellors (VCs) is due to discuss the potential scheduling conflict soon.

While it is by no means certain that a postponement will happen, there will be the consideration of holding the CLAT, sandwiched between the dates of the two big class 12 board exams a day either side.

Then again, options for alternative dates are looking slim on the ground.

In January of this year, the CLAT consortium had had to reschedule the exam from 9 May 2021 to 13 June, after a clash with the original CBSE board exams dates running from 4 May to 10 June.

This date clash also caused a postponement of the All India Law Entrance Test (AILET) from 2 May to 20 June.

That would put the CLAT in a bit of a re-scheduling bind, with even the Sunday after that - 27 June - already announced as the date for the Symbiosis Law Entrance Test (SLET) 2021.

On the plus side, June (or potentially July) is still some time away.

Update 20:39: “Tough situation for CLAT,” commented CLAT mentor and advocate Dr Shashank Singhal about the options.

“Keeping the dates as it is, also makes a lot of sense as it will give the much needed clarity to the students and getting extra time is not very relevant as if they know the dates before hand, they can manage their boards and CLAT accordingly,” he said, adding: “Tough times require tough decisions.

“In the past as well, during 2017 (elections in UP) there was hardly any time left for IIT aspirants after the boards. During that year, JEE Mains was conducted on 2nd April, 8th April and 9th April. And, CBSE Class 12th had an exam on 10th April. These are tough times. We need to support the authorities. I would earnestly request all the students to formulate a time table so that they can focus on both without affecting either.”