As controversial National Law Aptitude Test (NLAT) re-takes for candidates who had issues will be underway from noon today (14 September), the Jharkhand high court petition challenging the exam has been submitted to the Supreme Court with an intervention application, to join the matter that is set to be heard on Wednesday, 16 September.
According to one of the petitioners’ lawyers in the case:
The 5 students whose plea was dismissed by the Hon’ble JHC moves SC against NLSIU, Bangalore for relief. The petition has been by advocates Shubham Gautam, Baibhaw Gahlaut through the chambers of Kush Chaturvedi, AOR [including] Aditya Shekhar, Adv., Priyashree Sharma, Adv.
All lawyers were acting pro bono on the case, said Gautam, including the AOR.
Read the full special leave petition (SLP) here.
Retakes galore
We are currently working on the definitive analysis of the retakes. Keep your eyes peeled, we’ll link to it in the liveblog.
In the meantime, if you are sitting the retakes and have any issues (or even if not), please let us and other readers know in the comments below.
12:43: We have now published a more in-depth analysis of what NLS' decision to hold a re-take today means and why it's likely to upset a lot of candidates.
Paper leaked out during exam
13:22: At least as early as 12:53pm, according to screenshots from messaging groups we have seen, and with the retake of the exam still officially slated to be scheduled until 1:15pm, PDF copies of the retake exam paper were circulating on various online channels.
We have confirmed that this was indeed the content of the exam from a copy we had received by 12:57pm from a source.
Download the PDF of the leaked paper here.
The above PDF has gone massively viral on WhatsApp and Telegram groups and we have received several dozen copies of the paper so far.
While would not so much be a leak of the paper before the exam, it demonstrates at least one thing: the security measures to prevent candidates taking screenshots of the exam or otherwise managing to copy the content of the questions is clearly weak, to non-existent.
That it is possible and indeed happened is not surprising.
There are many ways the paper could have been shared and transcribed via screen capturing software and running each screen through optical character recognition.
Or if you managed to open up the ‘inspect source’ sidebar on your browser (which the tool makes harder but is pretty easy when you know how), you can literally copy entire questions into your clipboard (and there are apps that automatically save whatever you copy into a document).
Even worse, on Saturday, someone who took the test and wanted to show the security weaknesses, purported being able to see the entire exam paper at once with a few clicks in the page inspector, according to this YouTube video, while also de-activating the full-screen protections in the test so they could be on a different screen to the browser.
(Note: we have not able to confirm whether this would work in a live setting of the final exam, although it seems possible).
The video has been viewed more than 5,000 times so it’s possible someone (or more than one person) replicated the trick today.
- Read our detailed run-through of why the technology used for the NLAT has been insufficient to stop such issues.
13:51: Someone messaged us with the following view regarding the leak:
The question paper was definitely leaked by 12.53 on telegram groups. Some people are arguing that this was after the test was over so it does not matter.
The reporting time was 12.00. Exam was to start at 12.30. It is a 45 min exam so should finish by 1.15
If the paper is circulating at 1253 pm, the exam is STILL on. Plus, many people would have taken time for verification & logging in and so their exam would start at anytime between 13.30 & 1.15 pm (going by past experience when it took a few minutes to 45 minutes to log in).
Imagine the delight if you had the paper with you at 1253 and casually looked at it or got someone to solve it for you while you waited PATIENTLY to log in.
The Hindu reports glitches in logging in, again
A few students The Hindu spoke to mentioned that they were unable to appear for the re-test on Monday as well. “I logged in at noon and the photo verification process took half-an-hour and later I got a message stating that they are unable to set up my audio proctoring. I didn’t attempt a single question on September 12 nor was I able to attempt a single question even now. I am disappointed that the authorities are treating our future so casually. I am mentally exhausted and have lost one week’s preparation for the Common Law Admission Test that is scheduled on September 28,” she said.
NLS press release
The latest Press release by NLSIU is an admission that the paper was leaked. They say it doesn’t matter because people were already logged in or appearing for the exam. Imagine a scenario where a coaching centre or teacher gets the paper at 12.53 pm, solves it, and sends it on the phone/ mail to his student(s). They may have already started the paper (were budgeting 11 minutes per passage so would have done 1 or 2) passages. They STILL get answers for the rest 2 passages.
As for claims of detecting malpractices, let’s wait and watch. However, it is unlikely to differentiate between a student trying to solve something on a sheet of paper (allowed) and looking at his phone or multiple other ways that the tech- geniuses have shown us.
Why the leaked paper is not a big deal
While we would partially agree with this, in theory, the leak of the paper is dramatic and highly visible but would would argue it’s actually not that big a deal in and of itself.
Why, you might ask? Because to take advantage of the leaked exam paper, you need to have been cheating already, in order to get sent the leaked paper while you were in the exam.
NLS press release: A second completion
Does the NLAT even capture video data for later analysis?
I’m confident that Cocubes does not have the full length webcam footage of the rankers in lossless quality and audio. I’m confident that they won’t make the footage public if asked, they won’t even be able to produce the footage in the court, if asked.
I can tell this because I carefully observed the network stats of the testing portal.
In the first 30 mins (verification window) the testing portal transmitted a total of 150KB Data, that is understandable but even after the test started the portal wasn’t sending 1/3rd of required minimum data back to the server. I involved some of my friends and re-confirmed this observation in today’s test.
We will update this blog when we get further updates.
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NLSIU is worse to claim all that, and then go out of it's way to fuck over students. You don't get to have your cake and eat it too.
Jgls is also thinking of providing some 5-10 Rich IDIA $cholars admission at Jgls free of GST.
1. I am aspirant A, who suffered no technical glitches in NLAT (due to my privilege, but let's talk about it some other day). However, I messed up my exam on merits and when that survey by NLS was floated out, the frustrated me created a brouhaha that I suffered a lot of technical glitches in my exam (even though the sabotaging of exam is completely on me). Now with the opportunity of Retest, I am getting another chance of NLAT. The question here is: How do you ascertain that an examiner genuinely suffered those glitches or not?
2. I am an Aspirant B. I genuinely went through myriad issues of technical glitches and sent my query to NLS people, but I received no such chance of Retest (I draw my authority from previous LI article which says that not every student was given this chance). The question here is: How can NLS determine that my issues weren't genuine issues?
(Reeks of Arbitrariness, but let's move on)
3. A lot of people who gave multiple sets of NLAT reported that the difficulty pattern of each set differed. The idea of moderation is in the pipeline, but what are the grounds of moderation here? Is it some CBSE exam? Because as per my humble understanding goes, moderation looks good when you are giving a subjective exam. Not an objective paper.
Hence, it's not about conducting exams now. Its now a matter of Sudhir's ego. People are given a chance of Retest so that on hearing of this case on 16th, they have some fodder to present to SC (that Oh! We are so considerate that people were given a chance again-- What else could we have done?)
Because there are no other NLU's in between right?
While students across the country are facing such issues, multiplied by stupid decisions by certain NLU admins, these JGLS [...] can't miss a chance to earn their brownie points.
Sudhir is elitist and propogates exclusivity, but that does not change what JGLS is in the slightest.
GST-free fees for IDIA students and suddenly they're inclusive lol, get out of your frikking bubbles.
I mean don't forget how the recent, office-holding-at-SBA alumni quietly pushed the buttons to scuttle the ED overhaul and academic reform push by students immediately preceding the Sudhir days. THIS-IS-NLSIU!
Weird nostalgia. Weird.
This is cheating, sudhir where is your camera ?
We should strive to be Lions. Be the change that this world needs, throw down NLSIU, the (elitist) law institute into the depths of Tartarus. To be condemned in the fires of Sulphur and Brimstone, in Tartarus where even the Doom Slayer has no authority to enter.
NLAT is the biggest joke in legal field this year. Only exam with its question paper available to public before it was over. Only exam relayed over Zoom. Only exam coming with one week notice.
If this exam and Sudhir survive despite creating all the crisis, the country must be ashamed of it judiciary.
Thanks.
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